Politics – Page 184 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Pat Toomey Gets Formal NRA Endorsement

It was obviously expected, but now it is formally a done deal, and well deserved. It will also, hopefully, keep the pressure on Casey. This means, for EVCs, that we can direct our armies of volunteers to Toomey’s campaign for Senate. I jest about that a bit, but actually, despite the fact that the gun issue hasn’t gotten much play, I’ve gotten more people this year wanting to volunteer than any year previous. Hopefully we can really make an impression on the local political establishment this year when it comes to the gun vote.

I should also note that every person to contact Bitter in her district (which mostly covers Philly and some of Montgomery County) have been Philly cops, who can’t really get involved in campaigns, but care about the issue and wanted to know who to support. The ones that care enough to call are the ones who CeaseFire PA and the Brady folks will tell you are on their side.

A Look at the Senate Elections

Dave Kopel does a thorough analysis of what we stand to gain in 2010.

Key Castle Doctrine Vote Now Today

It was supposed to be yesterday, but was delayed until today. If you’ve already contacted your Pennsylvania State Representative, thank you. If not, there’s still time. Follow the link to NRA’s information page.

A Movement Gone Wrong

What if I told you that there was an organization out there taken over by zealots, and people who are motivated by grief to engage in activism restrict the freedom of others. Sound familiar? I really enjoyed this link to Classical Values provided by Glenn Reynolds, who also had some really worthwhile contributions to this line of thought. From Eric of Classical Values:

When I was awakened early this morning, I made the mistake of turning on the TV in the hope of being bored into drowsiness so I could go back to sleep. I turned on C-SPAN, thinking that boring speeches would do the trick.

Big mistake. Instead of boring speeches, I was greeted by passionate, in-your-face activists from M.A.D.D. The hard core of that organization consists mostly of people who have lost a family member because of an accident with a drunk driver, and who have clearly sublimated the normal grief which accompanies the death of a loved one into political activism. They think that their loved ones died because of lax laws, and they press for endlessly tougher laws, which they claim will stop drunk driving.

M.A.D.D. activists are now pushing toÂ make drunk driving a felony,Â and to lower the blood alcohol level standard for DUI from .08 (already lowered from .10 thanks to MADD activists) down to .04.

.04 is the BAC you’d get from a glass of wine.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see that this would create a gigantic new group of felons.

Read the whole thread. Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it? I’d say just as wrong too, but really, no one is going to be put in jeopardy of life and limb by not getting behind the wheel after a few drinks. Someone denied their right to effective self-defense tools just might.

For anyone who wants to belong to an organization who actually stands up for the motoring public, I would suggest the National Motorists Association, who have actually been willing to stand up to MADD’s insanity. They are doing what AAA used to do before they sold out to become an insurance company.

What’s really sadd about MADD, is that if they get what they want, they will destroy the legitimacy of these laws in the eyes of the public, and will actually reverse the gains they’ve made in the past several decades educating the public that drunk driving is a serious problem. In the end, social shame is what stops DUI, and if the standard is one drink and you’re a felon, that shame is going to disappear. MADD actually hurts its own cause with this garbage.

Punishing Companies for Not Screwing Up

You’d think that if a company self-reported a potential problem and then found out that they didn’t, in fact, break any rules, that the department responsible for regulating that industry would be happy to find out there were no problems and they could go on about their merry little way. But, it’s government, so you know that’s just not going to happen.

Common sense seems to have been banned from the building at the Department of Transportation according to Cranky Flier.

There have been plenty of questionable decisions coming from the Department of Transportation lately, but none more insane than the decision to fine United for accidentally reporting tarmac delays. Thatâ€™s right. United was overly cautious and now owes at least $6,000 (and another $6,000 if they do it again). I am now asking the DOT for proof that a monkey isnâ€™t running that organization, because I canâ€™t imagine a human making such an absurd ruling.

When I first heard this, I thought it was a joke. But no, itâ€™s not. In May, the first month when the tarmac delay rule was in force, United reported four flights that had exceeded the three hour ground time permitted. They were included in the DOT monthly report but later retracted. See, United made a mistake and was overly cautious, so in exchange, the airline has been slapped with a fine.

I would like to see this decision overturned. What’s more, I’d like to see the offending bureaucrat’s salary have a $6,000 fine removed. I suspect if the punishment for supremely stupid decisions had an impact on the take home pay of said bureaucrats, we’d see a little sanity return to the department.

Does He Even Know What He’s Talking About?

Bryan Lentz says Pat Meehan wants to allow evil, armor-piecing ammunition. I’m going to wager Bryan Lentz has no clue what armor piercing ammunition is, or what properties it has. He’s delving into a highly technical topic here, where advocates of gun control have successfully created a lot of confusion and beliefs out of ignorance. Does Rep. Lentz know, for instance that:

Grandpa’s hunting rifle ammo will punch through the armor typically worn by police like a hot knife through butter, as will just about any centerfire rifle cartridge.
Gun ban advocates have been going after lead ammunition lately, which has no ready alternative because bullets containing metals other than lead can be construed as armor piercing under federal law and are therefore not legal to sell to civilians.

Tread carefully on this topic, Representative Lentz. You’re heading into gun banning territory, and going back to positions that were politically untenable even in the 1980s. I should say tread carefully if you want to have a chance of winning. We still have a lot of gun owners in the 7th District, and we’ve done a pretty good job of educating them that when someone starts talking about “armor piercing” ammunition, that’s code for banning grandpa’s hunting ammunition. Anything that will effectively kill a deer will go through soft body armor. This is a manufactured issue, much like your “Florida Loophole”

We have to defeat this guy. I hope people in 7 are pulling out all the stops for Pat Meehan.

UPDATE: If you’re on Twitter, please join my “Retweet the truth” campaign, which doesn’t strictly have to be a retweet, butÂ include Kopel article shortened URL, along with something that suggests Bryan Lentz is a gun banning radical, out of touch with mainstream gun owners, and use the hash tag #PA07. I want Lentz to know were out there, and he has more to lose by the anger he’s whipping up than by the friends he’s winning spreading Teddy Kennedy’s old tricks around. Keep in mind this also shows Pat Meehan he can make friends by standing with us.

Looks Like Corbett Gets His Endorsement

It’s hardly a surprise that NRA is planning events to announce the endorsement of Tom Corbett for Governor. Normally Bitter would have attended and reported, but we haven’t gotten around to getting her car inspected yet. Onorato is trying to make gun control an issue in the campaign, and he’s on the wrong side. It’s really important that gun owners punish the Democrats for this. I’m convinced Rendell has the state party convinced NRA is a paper tiger in Pennsylvania. This is the election we show them that’s not the case.

Maybe She Should Have Shared

The kind of story Capitol Ideas is reporting, that a high ranking member of Dan Onorato’s Campaign staff was arrested for growing 28 marijuana plants in her home, probably shouldn’t hurt his campaign as much as it will. That many plants can’t be for personal consumption, unless she smokes a lot of weed. On top of that, what caused the discovery was the twelve ounces of ganja postal inspectors found being shipped to her home. Apparently 28 pot plants generates quite an odor.

I’m not a huge fan of our current drug policies, so to me her big sin, given the state of Onorato’s campaign, and how poorly he’s polling, is that she didn’t share with the rest of the campaign staff.

Maybe That’s Why There Was a Black Helicopter

Apparently this year’s Second Amendment rally in Harrisburg were labeled as potential havens for domestic terrorism, according to a state funded non-profit. These were reports sent to law enforcement and government agencies. Maybe that black helicopter that few overhead wasn’t just a coincidence :)

Security Theater

There’s no better source for amusing security theater scenarios than Joe Huffman. (This was a topic of great conversation in Louisville at the first Blog Bash, but I can’t seem to find any posts about it from the time.)

Anyway, while we were preparing for Hawaii, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about security for a number of reasons. Number one being Phoenix. We don’t get the benefit of an oops again. Number two reason is the debate for a trip like this over how much to bring in the way of toiletries and their damn 3-1-1 rule. Number three being the general pain-in-the-ass of TSA these days – and the fact that in Kona, we had to exit secured areas and re-enter when we had only 50 minutes between flights initially and our arriving flight was delayed by about 20 minutes. (Run!)

If it’s truly vital that no containers that can contain more than 3.4 ounces of liquid are allowed on the plane, then I should be forced to have a haircut pretty much every time I walk through security. At the very least, they would probably have to deny me entry if I try to board a plane after washing my hair.

I’m serious about this. We joked that I singlehandedly countered the effects of a rising tide in Hanauma Bay when I decided to go in just long enough to get my hair wet. My hair is crazy thick, very long, and holds a ton of water.

So, if my hair is not considered a security risk based on the fact that I’m quite confident it can hold more than 3.4 ounces of liquid, then why do we still have this rule? Sebastian’s aftershave was .1 ounce too much. Most of the travel-sized items are made to 3 ounces because people haven’t figured out that the actual rule is closer to 3 1/5 ounces. (Thank you Listerine for making your bottles just the right size!)

I guess I shouldn’t give TSA any ideas. Knowing that they are headed up by a woman who believes a nickname based off an Orwell novel is a good thing. Many of the TSA agents I’ve encountered have been bad enough, I’d hate to see who they would hire to give the mandatory haircuts at the gate.