Politics – Page 227 – Shall Not Be Questioned

So Many Exemptions

Can’t Fred Madden just admit this one-gun-a-month law is useless and repeal the damned thing? These exceptions proposed to New Jersey’s one-gun-a-month law are useless too. There is no legal definition of “competitive shooter” or “collector.” Â There is a type of federal firearms license you can get in the latter category, but having this C&R is not in itself an exception. To get any exception to this law, you have to make an application to the New Jersey State Police, which presumably they will not enthusiastically grant within any reasonable amount of time. What are also the standards for showing you’re a competitive shooter? There is none. This is the most useless thing I’ve ever read:

The applicant shall certify, on a form prescribed by theÂ superintendent, the specific exemption sought and the particular handguns to be purchased. This form shall be submitted to the superintendent at the same time as the permit to purchase a handgun, along with any pertinent documentation supporting theÂ need for an exemption. The superintendent shall consider the veracity, accuracy, and completeness of the information provided inÂ determining whether the applicant meets the requirements for anÂ exemption pursuant to this section. In considering an exemption sought under paragraph (3) of subsection a. of this section, the superintendent shall not consider the merit or validity of the applicantâ€™s collecting activities.

The superintendent shall not grant an exemption if he finds a reasonable likelihood that the public safety would be endangered by granting the exemption, including but not limited to instances where the applicant may be purchasing a handgun to give, sell or distribute to a person who would not qualify to purchase or otherwise acquire a handgun under the provisions of this chapter.

Either two things are going to happen. They will routinely deny exceptions, or they will largely grant all exceptions. In the former, this fix is worthless, and if the latter, the whole law is worthless. If we were silly enough to believe that New Jersey criminals were going to their local police, filling out all the forms for a license to own, and then the forms for multiple pistol purchase permits, submitting to a multi-point FBI background check, submitting references, place of employment, and all the other intrusive things New Jersey asks for to own guns. Now Senator Fred Madden would have us believe that adding one more form to the process is going to put a stop to criminals getting guns legally and selling them to other felons? Hogwash. The worst part is, I think he knows this is hogwash. But this is New Jersey, and politics is politics.

Medical Marijuana Debated in Keystone State

I don’t see what the big deal is, but then again, I’d be willing to decriminalize it generally. We’ve paid an awfully high price in terms of civil liberties trying to control what people put into their own bodies.

NJ One-Gun-A-Month Fixes

A bill has been introduced to fix all the problems with New Jersey’s gun rationing scheme, namely to allow exceptions for retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers, and also to allow exceptions for police, and for inheritance.

The sponsor of the measure is none other than Fred Madden, who is responsible for this mess in the first place. While I appreciate he’s trying, like a petulant child, to wash the crayon of the wall, it’s not going to prevent his punishment from being meted out next election day.

Presidential Birthplaces

Heading back up to Pennsylvania on I81 we passed the presidential birthplace of Woodrow Wilson. I wouldn’t stop there except to piss on it, but it got me thinking about predidential birthplaces in general. We’re pretty much out of the era where people were typically born at home, which makes me ponder whether or not we’ll start renaming hospitals after the Presidents who were born there. We could, for example, have the George W. Bush Medical Center and Birthplace, or the Barack “We Swear He Was Born Here” Obama Memorial Hospital in Honolulu. The king of all birthplaces is the Bill Clinton birthplace in Hope, Arkansas, but that’s only because there’s a great BBQ shack right off the exit — only fitting for the nations first fast food president. If there was a strip joint next door it would be the most fitting monument to Bill Clinton there could be.

Religious Perspectives

In Dave Kopel’sÂ Aiming for Liberty: The Past, Present, And Future of Freedom and Self-Defense, Chapter Five, “Religious Perspectives on Freedom from the Ancient World,” is closely related to Chapter Six, entitled “Religious Perspectives on Freedom From the West.” Some excerpts from Chapter Five:

Although there is a widespread myth that Jews in the Holocaust were passive, they were actually more active than any other conquered people. In 1942-43, Jews constituted half of Â all the partisans in Poland. Overall, about thirty thousand Jewish partisans fought in Eastern Europe. There were armed revolts in over forty different ghettos, mostly in Eastern Poland.Â […]

One of the great centers of resistance was Vilna, Lithuania, which before the Nazi conquest had been an outstanding center of Jewish learning, compared by some to Jerusalem.

Plans for resistance began in January 1942. The Jews’ only weapons were smuggled in from nearby German arms factories where the Jews performed slave labor. Hopeful of liberation by the Russian army, many of the Vilna Jews did not support the partisans. Partisan resistance postponed by three weeks the German plans to transport all the inhabitants of the Vilna ghetto to death camps[…]

Most of us have heard about the uprising in the Warsaw Ghettos, but it’s not widely known just how broad the Jewish resistance to the Nazi’s “Final Solution” really was. This story is at least now being told in a small part by Hollywood, but it’s not a part of history most people know about, and that’s a shame.

What Leadership!

Apparently food donations go to waste in New York City because of the trans-fat ban. It continues to amaze me that 150 or so mayors in Pennsylvania think it’s just peachy to associate with this power hungry monster.

Real World Experience of Cabinet Members

Obama’s record of appointing cabinet members with private sector experience is the lowest of any President in recent memory.

UPDATE: Looks like it’s got some factual issues. The original source is J.P. Morgan, so they will need to clarify methodology.

New Leadership in NJ Senate

Cemetery reports that Steve Sweeney will start his term come January. Sweeney was one of the Dem Senators that held the line on one-gun-a-month, unlike Fred Madden, who caved.

Family Values and the Economy

Via Glenn, I read an articleÂ about boomerang kids, and how the economy is affecting young people. Neither Bitter nor I are boomerang kids, but Bitter moved up here partly due to the job situation, and we’re certainly putting off marriage because of the poor economy. Because we’re putting off marriage, child rearing isn’t even really on the radar right now, and I’m not exactly a spring chicken. If the economy doesn’t improve in the next few years, having kids will hinge upon whether or not I want to put a child through college in my 60s. If social conservatives are serious about promoting “family values” they can start by joining us in restraining the Leviathan that our federal government is turning into, which is infecting and sucking the life out of not only our economy, but our private lives. No matter how you look at it, it takes money to start a family, and everywhere I look I see the government looking for ways to make sure I have less of it. That’s not promoting family values, that’s destroying it. It’s doing more to harm the institution of marriage and family far more than any gay wedding ever could. Social conservatives need to start reexamining their demons if they are serious about promoting marriage and family life.

Separation of Powers

Orin Kerr over at the Volokh Conspiracy takes a negative view of briefs filed at the Supreme Court by legislators:

Amicus briefs written on behalf of sitting legislators strike me as inappropriate. Of course, legislators can influence the judicial process in many ways. They write the legislation that the courts interpret; they control the rules that govern judicial hearings; they can control much of the Courtâ€™s docket; and they even control how many Justices are on the Supreme Court. Further, legislators take an oath to uphold the Constitution, and they have an independent (albeit sporadically exercised) duty to ensure that legislation they enact passes constitutional muster.

From a theoretical point of view, I can understand where Professor Kerr is coming from here. But I am not a law professor. I’m a Second Amendment activist, and from my point of view, as long as the courts take an attitude of deference to the elected branches, I have no problems with the elected branches demonstrating for the Court that they have a preference for a certain outcome in a particular case or controversy, especially when such an important and key constitutional issue is at question, such as the case with McDonald. In an ideal world, the Supreme Court would decide cases based solely on what the law and constitution says, and the elected branches would stay out. But we do not live in that ideal world.