Politics – Page 146 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Castle Doctrine Alert

There will be a Second Consideration on Castle Doctrine today, according to PAFOA:

We have received word that HB40 is to be scheduled for a Second Consideration vote on Wednesday, June 15. This vote can take place at any point during the day’s session, and it’s also during Second Consideration when anti-gun initiatives can be amended to the bill. It’s imperative that everyone contact their senators and ask them to vote YES on HB40, and vote NO on any and all amendments.

You know what to do. Apparently among the proposed Amendments is Florida Loophole, and a mandatory minimum of 5 years for any gun crimes.

Castle Doctrine Passes Senate Committee

This is great news. The Senate Committee was most hostile. I’ve been unplugged enough I forgot to update everyone that there was going to be a vote. It passed 13-1 out of committee.

More importantly, there’s no Florida Loophole fix attached to the bill, for those who were insistent that the deal was in the works to do that.

Now it’s onto the Senate floor where hopefully this will gain quick passage and be off to Governor Corbett.

On Guns & the Presidential Race

We cut the cable at the beginning of the year and happened to be doing internet upgrades, so I didn’t catch last night’s debate. From what I read on Twitter, I didn’t miss much. But then, Paul Erhardt added this commentary on the role of guns – or lack thereof – in the debate:

Not a single question on guns in tonight’s CNN debate despite the fact that New Hampshire is home to 4 major gun/accessory manufacturers that employee 2K+ people. In the Granite State, the classic ‘red meat’ GOP issue is also a mainstream jobs issue. Not to mention two of those companies, HK and Sig Sauer, make guns for the Navy SEALs.

Meanwhile, Jim Geraghty gives us a clue about the really important issues in 2012: “Ah, CNN found the one New Hampshire Republican furious about the U.S. military presence in Germany and South Korea.”

To be clear, I don’t think that guns will be a huge issue in the next presidential race. But considering what an economic boost the gun industry and related outdoor industries provide on top of the civil rights debate surrounding the regulations on ownership and use, it’s probably something that people find a tad more relevant to the next presidential race than the military presence in Germany and South Korea.

Bottom Dwellers

The Boston Herald seems to be surprised their their state ranks near the bottom in a freedom index:

â€œThe big takeaway is that Massachusetts is not doing well overall in terms of freedom,â€ said study co-author William Ruger, despite the stateâ€™s laissez faire attitude toward gay marriage and pot. â€œThereâ€™s this kind of stereotype or myth that the deep blue states are more economically restrictive but more personally free. But the data doesnâ€™t actually bear that out . . . Liberals tend to want to constrain your freedom in all areas.â€

Now I support gay marriage and a laissez attitude towards pot, but let’s face it, “rules on smoking, seat belts, transfats and firecrackers,” affect a lot more people. I, for one, have long believed it’s a core tenent of freedom that on certain holidays, we be able to celebrate our nation’s freedom by blowing up a small chunk of it.

Feminists Love Their Bodies

In fact, a women’s rights group loves women’s bodies so much that they believe clinics which provide services exclusively for women shouldn’t have any of the regulations applying to other outpatient facilities applied to them. Because safety and sanitation, those are things only men deserve, right?

Pardon me as I step away from the main topic of this blog and ponder an issue that baffles me as a modern women who actually does consider herself a feminist – at least one who doesn’t hate men.

I can’t fathom exactly how pro-choice groups oppose regulating abortion clinics as ambulatory surgical centers. While I understand their goal is to make abortion as accessible as possible, it is still a fairly major procedure that can have a long-term impact on the reproductive health of a woman. Shouldn’t they be in favor of making sure that such facilities have the same kind of oversight and safety requirements as similar medical centers that provide services for men?

I’m not even getting into the moral issue of abortion, this is a matter of looking at it strictly as a legal medical procedure – which it currently is right now. After the horrors in Philadelphia with agencies in dispute over who controls what in the process, why is there opposition to providing a clear regulation structure that can allow abortion clinics to remain open, but also require the same quality of treatment and safety conditions required for clinics that also serve the needs of men? Instead, a woman’s group calls on such equitable standards as a “public health crisis.”

Even beyond the question of whether abortion should be legal, the fact remains that it is legal. But I’m really shocked when proposals that ultimately do protect the lives and health of the women who seek abortions are actually opposed by women’s groups on the grounds that it will somehow cut off all access to the procedure. This isn’t a notification law, it’s not a mandate to get an ultrasound with a waiting period imposed afterwards, or any of the medically-dubious types of rules that many pro-life lawmakers try to push around the country. It’s regulating an abortion clinic for what it is – an outpatient surgical center.

I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on tv. I also don’t follow the abortion debate or politics very closely because it’s not an issue that’s ever going to change in any substantial manner. But, I am a woman. And when I hear groups that are supposedly all for equality getting their panties in a twist over regulating surgical services for women the same way that men’s medical services are treated, it doesn’t really add up on how this advances feminism if the current structure allowed a clinic that killed live babies and a woman. That seems very anti-woman to me.

Doctors Sue to Overturn Florida Gun Gag Law

I believe this should be an easy case for our opponents to win, and it was for this reason, plus a general conviction that we have a thing called free speech in this country, that I oppose NRA pushing these bills in state legislatures.

That said, I can see the strategic value in our opponents having to spend money they are short on to fight it. Even though the case should be fairly slam-dunk from their point of view, and for the First Amendment’s sake, I hope it is, it’s still money they won’t be able to spend fighting a case I really do care about.

In addition, it’s a shot across the bow to the medical establishment that they really ought not insert themselves into a contentious social issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the field of medicine. It’s not the AMA, AAP or ACP the press touts as the country’s most powerful lobbying group, and they would do well to remember that.

Department of Education SWAT Raid

Uncle notes that now we know what the short barreled shotguns they ordered were for. Tam thinks this is indefensible. Â Dave Hardy notes “[F]rom the list of matters to be seized it sounds as if they suspected her of getting student loans without being enrolled at a college. OK, send out a squad car and knock on the door.”

If a federal agency has a SWAT team, they are going to end up using it to justify its existence. I’ve long believed that there’s too much federal law enforcement, and it should all be consolidated under either the FBI or US Marshall’s service (since they’ve been around longer). It would be a huge cost savings, and you don’t have to worry nearly as much about the left hand not talking to the right hand.

Getting Rid of the Sunday Hunting Ban

Alerts from NRA and NSSF this week announced a public meeting of the Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee tomorrow to tackle the topic of ending the the blue law that bans Sunday hunting dating back to the 1870s.

The Sunday Hunting Coalition points out that Pennsylvania would see a significant economic boost from expanding the number of days hunters are allowed to take to the fields and woods.

The estimated impacts from a lift on the ban on Sunday hunting are based on responses to surveys of hunters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In these two states, government agencies conducted extensive surveys of hunters in which they were asked to report the number of additional days they would participate in hunting if the Sunday hunting ban were to be lifted. Based on these responses, it is estimated that hunters will participate in, on average, about 22 percent of the additional days made available to them from the lifting of the ban. In other words, if the lifting of restrictions increased the number of hunting days by 10, the average hunter would increase their hunting days by about two.

Specifically, Pennsylvania would likely see a direct economic impact that could create more than 4,400 jobs with wages topping $99 million. Of all the states with Sunday hunting bans or heavy restrictions, Pennsylvania stands to gain the most jobs and economic impact of a repeal of the prohibition.

So, you know, lawmakers who are so desperate for more money and want to be seen as “creating” jobs, this is your chance. Seriously, $99 million more in wages to tax and 4,400 new jobs. That’s just the direct impact, the indirect impact gives us even more jobs and higher wages.

(Similar post with a little more data & background over at PAGunRights.com.)

Shale Drilling

I will be the first to admit I’m relatively ignorant on the ins and outs of the science behind hydraulic fracturing, and its environmental impact, other than groking the overall basic concept. Generally speaking, I think it’s appropriate for government to regulate externalities, such as river or groundwater contamination caused by industrial processes, provided those regulations are based on science rather than hysteria.

However, I’m wondering how many of these people are going to voluntarily go without natural gas this winter. Speaking only for myself here, but I’m guessing I probably speak for many Pennsylvanians: I like not being cold. I also like hot showers. I’m open to listening to ideas about how natural gas drilling needs to be regulated, but these folks apparently want it stopped. I hate to tell these folks, but natural gas isn’t produced by farting unicorns.

Attack of the Beavers!

There’s apparently a local trend in animal attacks for which I was previously unaware. I better start preparing.