The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
The Brady Campaign is reporting that Bob Ricker is dead. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has more on who Bob Ricker was. He was famous around these parts for the oft-used quote “self-defense whacks” which appeared on Bitter’s blog before she changed her blogging topic. She also had a bit to say about his views on women. More history here.
Please keep the comments tasteful. Gun control advocates have families too.
I’m not sure how we’re supposed to believe the government can cut health care costs when they can’t even make money off sex and gambling. The closest we ever came in Pennsylvania to abolishing the state liquor and wine monopoly was during a period that they were losing money. It takes effort to be able to lose money selling vices, but the government is awful good at losing money, it seems.
Protest Easy Guns is an interesting group that’s cropped up since the Virginia Tech tragedy. The group is lead by Abby Spangler. These are the people who do the highly appropriately named “lie-ins” where they all lie down on the ground and pretend to be dead. It’s always seemed rather macabre to me, but hey, it’s a free country, and you can protest however you want. Protest Easy Guns has quite a Twitter presence though, and I’m rather surprised they respond to pro-gun critics at all, let alone seeming rather annoyed by them. Typical of an exchange with them, they started out announcing a protest on Times Square. I retorted back that protesting guns in New York City was like protesting for gay rights in San Francisco. Not exactly a brave statement in either city. That must have gotten under Ms. Spengler’s skin, because the response was pretty angry:
@SebastianSH Sebastian, you know we are not protesting guns! PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT! We are protesting felons having easy access to guns!
My response was highly appropriate, I think, but we know it’s false, and we know that Protest Easy Guns is lying. We can see on their issues page here they propose all the same thing the Brady Campaign does, including banning so called “assault weapons”. Not just banning them for felons, but banning them for non-felon citizens too. They also are fighting against allowing non-felon citizens who are 21 years and older, are license and trained, from being able to carry a concealed firearm on college and university campuses. Those people are non-felons by definition. And what exactly does the Tiahrt amendment have to do with felons accessing guns? Law enforcement can access the trace system for criminal investigations. Why else would you want the trace data?
So no, Ms. Spangler, Protest Easy Guns is not just about keeping felons from having easy access to guns, because some of the methods you choose to do that essentially mean I can’t have them either. Next time they have a lie-in, think for a moment about how appropriate that name is. Lie-in is right.
I’ve heard rumors of a new NJ FID system coming to NJ, which would join the digital era, and somehow, once this license is obtained, there will be no need to visit the local Police for permits. Everything would happen via NICS and point of purchase. Which makes me think that handgun purchases, and One Gun a Month laws, will be permitted, and enforces at point of sale. But, like I said, all I’ve heard was rumors.
If that’s true, it would be great. But the fact that they are even talking about, as cemetery mentions, making a special class of license for competitive shooters and collectors is encouraging. Keep pushing this, and don’t push the special license, just push getting rid of the purchase permits altogether. It’s New Jersey, so get anything you can, but if they are talking about it, it might be possible to just get rid of the purchase permits altogether. That would be real progress back to reasonable gun laws.
This article from the Wisconsin State Journal hints at some more details in the Wisconsin microstamping bill. Â You can find the actual bill here. It’s pretty bad. One of the worst bills I’ve seen so far. Here’s what it’ll do:
This is not an anti-crime measure, as the bill states. This is just a means to harass gun owners. It’s time for gun owners in the badger state to start getting angry, but don’t forget they are also pushing a “Lost and Stolen” bill as well. It’s been a tactic, it would seem, to introduce more than one bill, in the hopes gun owners focus on the really bad one and ignore the lesser evil. Don’t fall for it.
This crap will come to other states. It’s already on the table in New York State as well. I would note the Wisconsin bill has no exemption for police officers, so if I were manufacturers, I would make it clear they will not sell guns in Wisconsin, including to police agencies, if this law goes into effect.
The San Francisco Chronicle apparently draws the line at public sex tents for the Folsom Street Fair. Would the fairgoers even use them? Isn’t the whole point to draw attention and to shock people?
I decided to make up a batch of Extra Special Bitter for the holidays. Â It’s been quite a while since I have done any brewing, so I decided to go with an extract kit rather than doing an all grain batch. Right now I am outside with the snow, ice and rain bringing the kettle up to temperature for the boil. This will be the first time I try to use a plate chiller, so we’ll see how this goes.
UPDATE: Fermentation has started. I had a few issued with the plate chiller. In terms of cooling, it was very efficient, but if you use one, I have a few suggestions. Ideally, you’d probably want a pump. but they are hella expensive for a single use item. It can be done with gravity, but as I discovered a bit too late, one of these is a must, as the plate chiller ended up clogging with pellet hop residue. The worst part is I have one of those strainers for my kettle, but I forgot to put it on. Another option would be to just pre-filter the hot wort, being careful not to splash it and cause oxidation.
I suppose I should have realized that the real reason Dennis Henigan was crying into his Hennigan’s over the fact that a few mean pro-gun folks had decided to game his book ratings on Amazon down was because it interfered with the Brady Bunch plans to game his book ratings up.
Looks like my number came up, and I will be serving in the beginning of February. This is one of those unfortunate things, but I do consider it a civic duty, so I will go without complaint. They will never pick me anyway, at least not for any lengthy or infamous trial, due to the fact that any jury consultant worth his salt will quickly peg me as someone who will hold the state to its burden on proof, and I don’t think any prosecuting attorney will stand for it. They’d probably also be rather appalled that I believe in jury nullification under some, limited circumstances, but that’s not something I think I’ve discussed under my real name.
Work is kicking my butt with end of the year stuff. We’re ramping up for a second project. I did not even have time to look at my blog today, let alone post on it, and last night I was out with some coworkers. Thanks to Bitter for filling in.