Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 807 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

The Impact of the “Philly Blogger License”

I know everyone has seen this story already. It’s being touted as though Philadelphia is requiring a blogging license – which is not true. Philadelphia is requiring bloggers who make money off of their sites (in the cited examples, pitifully little money) to set them up as businesses. City Paper notes that they have the same requirements for freelance writers in Philadelphia. Bloggers aren’t being unfairly targeted – anyone conducting any form of financial transaction is being targeted.

Most of the commentary I’ve seen focuses on discretion in applying the law. I can sympathize with that point because it’s what we call “common sense.” And the impact will be felt here in the blogosphere. Wyatt says he’ll quit blogging if they come after him, and but all he’s got is a tip jar. I find his True Detective Stories to be a real eye-opener in the law enforcement world. (I assume most officers are brilliant like Wyatt, but it’s always good to be reminded that there are a significant number who are not. We’ll just leave it at that before I get into too much trouble.) I would consider the loss of his blog a real loss in the realm of serious public discussions, even if the True Detective Stories just want to make beat your head against your desk. (We live in the suburbs. Suck it, Philly.)

The good news is that the original story (and not the abbreviated/quoted Examiner piece that’s been linked everywhere) highlights one potential correction that’s not just a matter of relying on bureaucrats to use a little common sense when they try to open your wallet & take their “fair share.”

But bloggers aren’t the only ones upset with the city’s tax structure. In June, City Council members Bill Green and Maria QuiÃ±ones-SÃ¡nchez unveiled a proposal to reform the city’s business privilege tax in an effort to make Philly a more attractive place for small businesses. If their bill passes, bloggers will still have to get a privilege license if their sites are designed to make money, but they would no longer have to pay taxes on their first $100,000 in profit. (If bloggers don’t want to fork over $300 for a lifetime license, Green suggests they take the city’s $50-a-year plan.)

Their bill will be officially introduced in September.

The paper rightly points out that it doesn’t fix the business license requirement, and it still may mean they would have to pay more in taxes than they earn if they aren’t a large site. That’s a legit concern, but just like most things, fixes will come a step at a time.

The other good news is that this was a Drudge headline for a while, so it should drum up enough anger around the country to shame Philadelphia bureaucrats into behaving like reasonable adults for the time being. But, for any bloggers looking to escape, there are some lovely houses for sale in our suburban neighborhood.

“An Entire Group of Reasonable People Expressing Their Constitutional Rights”

That’s what Jon Stewart calls NRA members.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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Extremist Makeover – Homeland Edition

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Watch the clip, and wait for the entire segment. Â It is a great reminder of what a powerful speaker Charlton Heston really was when he was presiding over the NRA. Enjoy the video. You won’t hear top lefty entertainers say this too often: “The point is, I was wrong and Heston was right. … He’s still right.” (Video found via Radley.)

Welcome to Central Pennsylvania

While we would obviously fight any attempt by a township in this state to shut down a legitimate shooting range, shooting across roadways is to be generally frowned upon. Now a man’s quest for 1000 yard shooting (hard to find in PA) has run into his Township. The money quote here is:

Lavelle asked what London was doing in the photo Beatty took, and what the object identified as a target in DeBoer’s video was. London said he was shooting at a groundhog that was about 1,060 yards away, and the object was a five-gallon drum suspended by ropes used as a deer feeder, not a target.

[…]

Choman questioned if hunting groundhogs with a sniper rifle at a distance of 1,060 yards was extreme.

“I don’t think so,” said London.

If the guy is shooting over township roads, which he has admitted, and doesn’t have the appropriate safety measures in place, he needs to stop. While a .50BMG can’t travel “a distance of 45 miles,” as one Township Supervisor said, It can certainly travel quite a bit.

How to Make a Slingshot Out of Condoms

This guy will show you:

Hat tip to reader Brad for highlighting it in the comments.

Police Crack Down in Illegal Guns

In China, where guns for ordinary people are banned:

China Daily, in aÂ story on Wednesday about the gun trade in the remote area where Hunan province borders Guizhou province and Chongqing, said the regionâ€™s underground gunsmiths and their homemade firearms flow mainly from Songtao, an autonomous Guizhou county.

We’ve always said that’s what would happen if total prohibition were enacted, and we’re laughed at by the prohibitionists. But that’s exactly what’s happened in China.

GOA Gets Burned Dabbling in Ancillary Issues

Apparently GOA held a position on “net neutrality” based on Larry Pratt’s paranoid delusions, and ended up aligning themselves with a left-wing who’s who. The writer of this article got a clarification from Pratt himself, saying they no longer support net neutrality now that it’s boiled down to Government control of the internets. Well, what else was it going to be? If private companies collude to limit bandwidth of certain services, or give priority to certain content, who else is going to come in to correct it? Jesus?

This is the danger of becoming involved in ancillary issues outside of your core mission. If GOA had held serious and convincing evidence that this was really a core gun rights issue, and aligned themselves with left wing groups who were also on the same side, I would have applauded them. But GOA’s entry into this issue was based on the vague idea that private businesses could or would conspire to limit access to Second Amendment information and communication. Could it happen? Maybe. But then the group they join asks Uncle Sam to step in, and suddenly it’s a horrible idea.

Again, I believe GOA to be a completely unserious organization when it comes to defending the Second Amendment, and this is just more evidence. They never should have involved themselves in this issue, and it seems pretty clear to me their involvement was poorly thought out. If you don’t trust private enterprise to control the Internet, and you don’t trust Uncle Sam to control the Internet, what is your preferred solution?

Going Mainstream

Sports Illustrated has an article about Camp Perry shooters.

The Ducks are Lining up in Nordyke

Nordyke v. King is shaping up to be the next big case, I think, and the ducks are getting lined up in a row. Nordyke is the case where Alameda County banned gun shows from its fairgrounds. The Court is considering whether or not this is a violation of the Second Amendment. I’m rather pleased that this may be the next big case, because the win or lose isn’t nearly as important as what the Court is going to say. We could lose on the merits, and still win.

Both many groups have filed briefs in this case (NRA’s can be found here), arguing that the standard for reviewing Second Amendment claims is strict scrutiny. This would seem (to me at least) to be a good context for arguing that. You don’t have criminal prohibitions complicating the matter, like we did in the Skoien case in the 7th Circuit. It’s pretty clear that Alameda County banned gun shows because they don’t like them, rather than because of any legitimate government interest. That’s why this is important.

This case, win or lose, could end up defining the boundaries of the Second Amendment, most certainly for the Ninth Circuit, which includes a number of states, but also for the entire country, as other circuits adopt their reasoning.

What I’ve Been Doing

Getting more serious about the idea of getting an actual pilot’s license. So I’ve been reading. I have a new respect for pilots. It’s a daunting amount of information to remember. For instance, METAR reports. What is a METAR report? Stands for Metrological Aerodrome Report. What does a METAR look like? Well, like this:

KPHL 201354Z 36005KT 10SM CLR 29/16 A2994 RMK AO2 SLP138 T02890156

In that is pretty much everything you need to know about the weather in Philly to fly out of there. Winds are due north at 5 knots, visibility is 10 statute miles (specified because aircraft use nautical miles by default), clear skies, 29C (84F) degrees, dew point at 16C (60F). Pressure 29.94″ Hg. The complexity is not merely to confuse pilots. It’s to save radio bandwidth and make the report easy to parse. Another sort of code is flight plans. For this example, we’ll use my friend Jason, who is on his way to Hilton Head currently in his dad’s Twin Comanche. For a flight that long, you would typically want to file and follow a flight plan with the FAA. The route is described thusly:

MXE V29 ENO V16 PXT V16 RIC V157 LVL

Believe it or not, all of that translates into this, some of which are radio beacons, and others of which are just imaginary points in the sky. Given this string, air traffic control knows how you plan to fly, because these numbers are essentially codes for predefined routes. MXE (Modena, PA), for instance, is a VORTAC where you will pick up the V29 path to the ENO (Smyrna, DE) VORTAC, which passes through the DQO (Dupont) VORTAC on the way. If you want to see what that looks like on the chart, here’s a low enroute map of that area:

Much to learn. But it’s my goal to achieve competence first, before going through the formal process. That way I will learn quickly, and spend less money (hopefully) getting the actual license.

Debunking the Zombie Apocalypse

A hilarious article over at cracked.com. Number one reason? “Weapons and the People Who Use Them:”

Remember, the whole reason hunting licenses exist is to limit the number of animals you’re allowed to kill, because if you just declared free reign for everybody with a gun, everything in the forest would be dead by sundown. Even the trees would be mounted proudly above the late-arriving hunter’s mantles. It’s safe to assume that when the game changes from “three deer” to “all the rotting dead people trying to eat us,” there will be no shortage of volunteers.

RTWT