Politics – Page 342 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Yes, It’s Primary Day

In what is perhaps my last act of political apathy, I will not vote in today’s primary.Â I have long held that I would switch my registration from Independent to Democrat or Republican if either party could give me a choice worth switching over.Â To date, that has yet to happen.Â McCain has the Republican nomination locked by now, and the Democrat choices are both so bad I’d have to throw myself off a building if I voted for either of those two.Â I guess you could say I’m bitter.

But my apathy in regards to political parties will be at an end after this.Â I have come to realize I am part of the problem.Â The reason there’s no one worth voting for is because I have not done enough to help get people on the ballot who are worth voting for.Â I will have to pick sides, and help promote candidates I like.Â To that end, I think the Republican party is still closer to my own views than those of the Democrats.Â If small government libertarians are to affect change, we have to work within the political system we have, not the one we wish we had.Â Next election I’m not going to sit back and let someone else present me with a choice.Â I’m going to try to make choices, and be heard.Â I will register Republican, and support the candidates who most believe in getting government off our collective backs.

Disregarding the Law

Dan Pehrson, president of the PA Firearms Owners’ Association, has an editorial running in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

Until our elected officials learn to abide by the law, we gun owners will have to set an example. In what is only the first of many steps, gun-owner groups have filed for a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the Philadelphia gun-control ordinances. Those of us who live in the city will continue to lawfully keep and bear our arms, waiting on the city to follow our lead in respecting the laws and constitution of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Read the whole thing.Â A certain pair of gun bloggers, who will hunt you down and beat you if you don’t, helped in the drafting and submission of this editorial.

Smart Gun New Jersey: 5 Years Later

A startling admission from the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

Today, after gun manufacturers, engineering firms and research universities have spent millions competing to perfect the weapon, the quest has wandered onto the slow track.

The federal government has all but ceased its funding, crippling research. Legal squabbles over patents shelved promising technologies. And gun manufacturers got out of the business entirely, wary of potential lawsuits and marketing guns that would cost far more.

You don’t say?Â This kind of project is happens to be in the displine that I’m trained in professionally, and if I were working on this project, I would definitely take exception to this:

“We need to demonstrate that you can reliably turn a gun off in real time,” he said.

That is not good enough for Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire New Jersey, which pushed for the law five years ago.

“They went about inventing the Ferrari of recognition technology when they could have used the money to build a Ford,” Miller said. “They’ve run out of money and they can’t marry it to a handgun and, frankly, I think it’s shameful.”

Miller said he believes the nationwide effort has been sabotaged.

“We know that gun manufactures have already developed these technologies, they just don’t want to put them in guns,” he said. “The National Rifle Association doesn’t want them to do it.”

Bryan Miller has little respect for how difficult an engineering project something like this is.Â Not only must the circuitry withstand forces well beyond what typical consumer electronics will have to endure, they must get it right 100% of the time in a fraction of a second.Â What I suspect Bryan is looking for is a ring type system, where the firearms user has to wear a ring in order to use that gun, which transmits a code to the firearm if it’s in proximity and that allows it to fire.Â It’s really the only way to solve the problem technologically, but even that will be subject to reliability problems.Â As a professional engineer, who also understands guns very well, smart gun technology is a folly.Â It’ll be enormously expensive and won’t always work properly.Â It’ll be prone to interference, bad gripping, all the problems you’d encounter shooting in a high stress situation.

But that’s doesn’t matter to Bryan Miller.Â These dastardly conspiring engineers just don’t want to deliver the technology, and it’s screwing with his master plan to ban all guns in New Jersey, except for his junk smart guns.Â Bryan Miller summarized: “It doesn’t have to work!Â I just want to ban guns, so deliver something already!”

Say No to Cronyism

It would seem the city politicians want to change the home rule charter to allow more management level positions that are exempt from civil service requirements.Â I agree with Wyatt on this one, it’s a bad idea.Â It means the city politicians get to give more cushy jobs to their cronies.Â If you think corruption is bad now…

Quote of the Day

From Egregious Charles:

One of the problems with the Supreme Court’s role in enforcing constitutional boundaries that they are a panel of firefighters nominated by a pyromaniac and approved by an arsonist’s convention.

Certainly true, but I’m not sure I can think of a better way to select judges.

Image is Everything

Some are arguing that McCain’s voting record, which is more conservative than many people realize, won’t matter, since independents tend to view him as a moderate.

His conservatism could be a problem for Mr. McCain — particularly if this November’s contest is as close as recent presidential elections, which were decided by independent-minded voters in the center of the political spectrum.

But he might avoid this problem to the extent people know him as an independent-minded politician. And many do view him that way.

“People see him as a centrist. They don’t see him as a conservative,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

“In fact, they put him pretty close to themselves, in terms of ideology, and put President Bush way to the right of themselves,” Mr. Kohut said.

Except I think McCain is a centrist, conservative voting record aside.Â Much like the current Commander-in-Chief, he’s antagonized enough parts of the Republican coalition that conservatives don’t much like him.Â He’ll earn my vote in November, because, well, look at my other choices.Â Plus, I think McCain is a sight better than the current occupant of the oval office, and I managed to close my eyes and think of England in 2004.Â I can do it again.

Obama Funds Gun Control

Looks like Obama’s roosters are coming home to roost a day before the Pennsylvania primaries:

Obamaâ€™s eight years on the board of the Joyce Foundation, which paid him more than $70,000 in directors fees, do not in any way conflict with his campaign-trail support for the rights of gun owners, Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Obamaâ€™s presidential campaign, asserted in a statement issued to Politico this week.

LaBolt stressed that the foundation, which has assets of about $935 million, doesnâ€™t take â€œdetailed policy positions,â€ but rather uses its grants to â€œfuel a dialogue about how to address public policy issues like reducing gun violence.â€

Oh, you mean this type of dialog?Â Not a good thing to be associated with in a pro-gun blue state.

We’re Not Stupid

Via Thirdpower, Pennsylvania gun owners don’t trust either of those two.Â Josh Sugarmann drags out the old canard that us knuckle draggers won’t vote for Democrats regardless:

What’s more, it generates criticism from the left. “You have both Obama and Clinton going out of their way to appeal to a cross-section of gun owners who are never going to vote for them,” bemoans Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center.

That’s especially not true in Pennsylvania, where a significant part of the gun vote are union members, who would vote Democrat if it weren’t for the gun issue.

Tax Dollars At Work

In Montana:

The Labor Department says recent job losses are behind an increase in the stateâ€™s unemployment rate.

Ya think?

Quote of the Day

Christine M. Flowers at the Daily News:

Philadelphia has been ignored in Harrisburg. It does have special problems. But acting like defiant and belligerent children when we don’t get our way isn’t going to solve those problems. It’s just going to confirm what the people in northeastern and western and central Pennsylvania already think of us.

That we’re a lawless city.

Yes, it will.Â Not to mention that it’s not a great idea, in a city infested with lawlessness, to have the Mayor, Police Chief, and City Council themselves flout the law so flagrantly.