Politics – Page 64 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The New Realities

Jim Geraghty made this remark in light of the NSA spying leaks: “Of course, you can do the right thing and still break the law.”

Meanwhile, Sesame Street debuts an education kit for helping kids deal with an incarcerated parent.

Clearly, there’s not such an epidemic of questionable spying document dumping in this country that these two things are directly related, but I don’t think they are completely unrelated, either. It’s a sad day when we pretty much joke about how practically everyone is a criminal these days because they’ve probably cross some regulation they never even knew existed.

It reminds me of a Kindle book my mom bought me that I really need to read soon: Trapped: When Acting Ethically is Against the Law

Unfortunately, since the answers to these issues don’t fit into a soundbite, don’t expect any serious discussions about the topic from our political leaders.

Searching High and Low

After some recent genealogical research, I discovered my 4th great grandfather was the owner of a bottling company in Philadelphia. The bottles are antiques, but still turn up at shops and auctions from time to time. I am determined to score one, so we’ve been searching antique markets and shops in the area.

His business seems to have been at its peak before the Civil War. My 3rd great grandfather served in the 71st Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, and was wounded at Antietam. He died in a veterans hospital some years later of septicemia in Hampton, Virginia, and was buried there. Fortunately for my father, and myself, he lived long enough after the war to have my 2nd great grandfather. I’m not certain my 4th great grandfather’s bottling company survived the war.

That’s not to say I haven’t found some cool stuff looking around these shops and markets. Today we went to a market in Columbus, New Jersey, and while we didn’t find one of his bottles, we found several other bottles from Philadelphia that were from the same era. Close, but no cigar. But the search has been interesting. There might still be some gun culture left in the Garden State:

Actually, this part of New Jersey is pretty red, so it’s not too surprising. But walking around the shops, I saw things I remembered from both my house growing up, and my grandparents houses. This is just one thing I found which I remember from my house, which I think may have come from one of my grandparents originally:

One of these adorned the mantle over my fireplace as a kid. I have no idea where it came from, or what’s happened to it since, but apparently it’s hand painted and worth more than I would have ever imagined. It’s a match holder for those really long stick matches. There’s a striker on the bottom to light them. I may have to talk to my sister and father to make sure they know it’s not some worthless piece of junk.

Of course, I’m also finding cheap, but interesting beer steins. This one spoke to me so I bought it.

As best I can find, this is a Gerz stein from the 20th century, possibly from the 1960s, but I’m not certain. Either way, it was less than 25 bucks, and it is made in Germany. The words say “Ein guter Trank macht Alte jung” translates as “A good drink makes the old young.” I cleaned it up a bit and decided to fill it with some Paulaner “Original Munich” Lager tonight. The original owner pretty clearly had used it for its intended purpose, and I plan to continue in that tradition.

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Host Concealed Carry Course

Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers are hosting a concealed carry-related course later this month. Reps. Seth Grove and Mike Regan are hosting the non-live fire course that will focus on the legal elements of carrying concealed in the Commonwealth.

Attorney Matt Menges will discuss concealed carry laws and will touch on the Castle Doctrine. An officer from the Northern York County Regional Police will discuss how to safely interact with the police while exercising the legal right to carry a firearm.

This sounds like a great opportunity for folks around Wellsville, PA in York County. You certainly don’t hear about lawmakers doing events like this very often, and I think they deserve credit for providing such a class that helps people understand how to carry lawfully.

This, 1000x This!

Tam’s reaction to the dodge that NSA domestic snooping is just peachy because Bush did it too:

This isÂ exactlyÂ the kind of crap that had civil libertarians so disgusted with the previous administration that they decided to give Team Donk a chance, and look what they got in exchange: A bad punchline of an Executive branch. “They told me if I voted for McCain that secret intel organizations would Hoover up all the phone records of every American, and they were right!” Har-de-har-har. It was funny the first thirty-seven times.

And what’s the Mainstream Media doing? Hiding smoking guns like a lovestruck teenager for her gangster boyfriend. If you guys were manning the bridge in ’73, you’d be doing special investigative reports on why security guards should mind their own business when they see a taped door lock. It could be taped for national security reasons! And George Bush taped locks, too!

It always annoys me greatly when people bring up the “Bush did it!” excuse, like that’s some kind of “Get out of Jail Free” card they can play — like everyone else is the same kind of partisan hack as people who assert this defense seem to be. Well, you know, I thought Bush was an asshole too, so what’s your point? In fact, given Bush’s approval ratings at the end of his second term, I’m fairly certain I’m not alone in this sentiment.

A New New Jersey Senator

Gabby Giffords asked Chris Christie for an anti-gun successor to Lautenberg. What we get isÂ NJ’s current sitting AG. I don’t really know his record on guns, or even if he has one, but to be honest I don’t consider it to be remarkably important, because he could be the Carrie Nation of guns and it wouldn’t change much. Even if he voted with us 100% of the time, he’s not going to run in the special election. He’s a placeholder.

Being from New Jersey, I would not expect much in the way of pro-gun votes from him, if he gets to take any at all. I think even if he has some pro-gun votes in him, he’d stillÂ likely be a vote for Manchin-Toomey. But so was Lautenberg. It doesn’t get them anywhere. If he votes against any anti-gun bill or amendment, it will just be pure bonus as far as I’m concerned.

The Gun Vote Looks to be Fired Up

Missouri’s special election yesterday to fill the 8th district Congressional seat was expected to be a likely win for Republicans since, according to Charlie Cook, that’s a R+17 district. The final result ended up being an R+40 win. That’s not a typo, that’s a 40 point win in a district where Republicans have a registration advantage of less than half of that number.

I was not watching this race at all, but it appears that guns may have been a bit of an issue. The Reuters summary of the race mentioned that Democratic State Rep. Steve Hodges actually ran a campaign based on being pro-gun. The NRA ratings for the race show that there was still a distinction between the two. Republican State Rep. Jason Smith had a solid A rating that earned him the NRA endorsement while Hodges had an A-.

If gun owners did turn out and help make this such a landslide victory, then I hope it will inspire other gun owners in the rest of the country.

The Federal Gun Control Push

I find it quite interesting that just as Sen. Richard Blumenthal announces that he’s going to bog the pending immigration bill down with gun control amendments, Majority Leader Harry Reid comes out and announces he’s getting the gun control gang back together for another round of stand-alone legislation.

The timing of this makes it appear as though Reid is trying to keep the new gun control crusaders from derailing the entire White House agenda. Of course, if Reid has to do this every time they threaten a key piece of legislation, Sen. Joe Manchin may not ever get a break from having his name attached to gun control in West Virginia for the rest of his term. What he may have believed was a one time thing in the first year of his new term may become a semi-annual debate that always puts his name in the headlines for target the guns of West Virginians. I have no pity for him since he’s clearly digging in for the long haul on this fight. At least Sen. Pat Toomey looked at the writing on the wall and knew to drop the debate.

Fallout from the PA-13 Race

Allyson Schwartz wants to run for Governor, so her current seat in PA’s 13th district is up for grabs, and grab it a who’s who of Pennsylvania lefties are trying to do. Now Marjory Margolies, formerly Marjory Margolies-Mezvinsky, is in the race. But that’s not all, dear friends. In order for primary candidates to polish up their credentials, we’re going to have ourselves some gun control:

Meanwhile, State Rep. Brendan Boyle Monday introduced HB1479, a bill that would prohibit the sale, purchase, or possession of large capacity ammunition magazines. The sponsors and supporters of Boyleâ€™s bill, including fellow PA-13 opponent Leach, will hold a news conference on Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda.

HB1479 can be found here. Very limited and confusing grandfathering. But hey, punching those neanderthal gun nuts in the gut is a sure way to demonstrate your progressive bone fides to the kind of people who like that type of political theater. I should note that as long as the GOP controls the legislature and the governor’s mansion, this likely isn’t going anywhere. But do you have faith the GOP will never lose another election in Pennsylvania?

Colorado Recall of the Senate President

According to this article, signatures to recall the Colorado Senate President will be presented to the state today.

This could be the interesting recall to watch since he’s a bigger symbolic target, and the numbers behind the last election show he is beatable if he has pissed people off. What impressed me from the article is that gun owners appear to have been quite sharp and focused in meeting their goal on this recall effort:

Many of those petitions were signed at Paradise Sales under the watchful eye of Mr. Paradis, who says he was careful to check the eligibility of interested supporters on the secretary of stateâ€™s website before letting them sign.

â€œAbout 50 percent of the people who came in to sign the petition didnâ€™t live in the district, but wanted to help,â€ said Mr. Paradis, one of three residents in Mr. Morseâ€™s district who launched the recall. â€œThereâ€™s a real groundswell of support for this. They woke up a sleeping giant.â€

That’s good to know that at least one of the organizers was being especially focused. And it’s great to hear that people who weren’t qualified to sign were still offering to help.

Too many gun owners feel like they live in areas where they can’t make a difference, but the district right next door may be a prime target. Unlike Mike Bloomberg, you’re still part of that community.

One problem with a successful petition is that gun owners may believe that the message sent has been loud enough, and it won’t be until 2014. The energy needs to carry on into far more districts. If that can happen, then the message will likely be very loud and nationwide.

UPDATE: And, of course, in the time I started writing the post and actually got around to publishing it, Cam has updated that they have turned in far more signatures than needed.

More than 16k signatures turned in to CO Sec of State’s office for recall effort against State Senate President John Morse. #gunversation

— CamEdwards (@CamEdwards) June 3, 2013

And Here I am Without Champagne

Lautenberg is dead. I’m not going to mourn or say nice things about a Senator who made a career out of pissing on individual freedom and liberty, and trying to be everyone’s friggin mother. There was hardly a nanny law passed into existence that he either didn’t spearhead or sponsor.Â I don’t mourn the passing of tyrants who want to control everyone’s lives. Christie gets to name a successor, at least until a special election, so it looks like he’ll be running with a Senate candidate. His own personal popularity could help flip that seat to the R-column, at least temporarily.