The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
I know, it’s hardly new advice to readers here. But apparently things are getting worse with the second fatal attack on pizza delivery guys in a two weeks.
I guess that quest to “minimize” the right to self-defense is working out pretty well for the city. I guess the only hope Philly has for economic recovery is a bustling underground economy that has a side effect of improving the economy of putting people underground.
A California fashion designer launched his fall/winter 2010 line today. I guess the economy really does influence design:
American designer Rick Owens continued to plumb the depths of the dark side Friday, with a fall-winter 2010-2011 menswear collection of gender-bending, space age-y designs ready for the apocalypse. …
Overall, the collection, with its asymmetrical hemlines and great floppy flaps of fabric, looked like the kind of wardrobe the father and son in Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic fable “The Road” would have fashioned out of found detritus.
If I were living in California, I suppose the apocalypse would be an apt design inspiration. Might as well be ahead of the pack, right?
Who wants to have a little goof on Friday? More fun from the Pennsylvania Capitol serves as inspiration:
Rep. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne, showed up for work this week. And he was so proud of what he was supposed to be doing in the first place that he felt obligated to put out a press release about it: “Yudichak Participates In Hearing On Establishing State Energy Agency,” was the breathless headline.
If merely showing up is all it takes to warrant a news release, here’s ours: “Micek Blogs, Has Ham Sandwich For Lunch, Enjoys Several Long Contemplative Silences.”
Try it at home … see if you can sum up your working week in a press release headline.
I’m not going to bore you with the complexity of campaign finance laws. Really, it’s tedious. But my prediction is that the end result voters will actually see will be an increase in attack ads.
The Morning Call‘s John Micek has rounded up some insights, one in particular stands out:
Larry Ceisler, a Democratic consultant from Philly, said he thinks that while corporations might hesitate, unions will jump in with both feet. He also said that there’s a risk that unfettered corporate speech might drown out candidates’ own ads, which could cost them control of their own messages.
“For instance, if an entity is supporting a candidate and doesn’t think the message is tough or sharp enough, they can go in and do it themselves,” he told the newspaper. “That could be good for a campaign – or disastrous.”
I would be willing to put money on the fact that groups will now go more negative earlier than any candidate will. It’s unfortunate, but it is the likely result. In the Brown-Coakley race, her campaign worked alongside national groups to bombard the airwaves in the last week with nothing but negative ads against Scott Brown. Yes he was elected, but you can’t really argue they didn’t work. Rasmussen found on election day that voters who made up their minds in the last few days before the election broke for Coakley at a higher rate. He also found that more of Coakley’s supporters were really going to vote against Brown rather than for Coakley than vice versa. Unfortunately for Coakley, she just didn’t get the ads on the air early enough.
After that loss, I would say to expect more and expect them earlier. Though hopefully they will stay off of the Weather Channel this time around.
UPDATE: Marginal Revolution has posted word clouds from both the majority and dissenting opinions to give you a better idea of what each side was focused on.
The case is Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. Looks like a bit of a judicial trainwreck, much like McConnell v. FEC was, but the good news is we’re rid of many of the restrictions, including restrictions on independent corporate expenditures, which would apply to groups like the National Rifle Association. So this is a positive development for us in the Second Amendment community.
For some expert opinion on the matter, see SCOTUSBlog, Volokh, and the Election Law Blog.
Not a bad article on the rise of the AR platform. They talk about the rise, fall, and rise again of Jim Zumbo in that context, and the NSSF’s push to educate more traditional hunters and shooters about some of the myths and mischaracterizations that have followed these firearms as they’ve made their way into the shooting culture.
Two states now are in the mix with this issue, the first is Virginia, where the push began after the Roanoke Times published a list of all the permit holders in the state. Now that the legislature and Governor’s office are more friendly, we can finally get this done. Indiana has been in the mix for the past two months, and also is now floating a bill that would close public access to carry permits. This has to be one of the lamest defenses I’ve seen of the databases.
And what about the employer who recently fired a disgruntled employee? Shouldn’t that employer be able to discover the former worker now has a permit to carry a gun?
Public access supporters point out that gun rights advocates might be working against their own interests by shutting down access to these records.
How, for example, will they be able to prove that law-abiding citizens are wrongly being denied these permits if they cut off access to the information?
Because we know the law? Look, this isn’t a discretionary process. If you meet the qualifications, you get the permit. It’s abundantly clear if people are being denied permits unjustly. Plus, if they are denied, they aren’t going to appear in the database now are they? And why does an employer need to know whether someone has a permit to carry? Do people routinely get permits before coming in and shooting up the workplace? I mean, we can’t be carrying illegally on the way to murder people, can we?
Looks like the state is looking to make some improvements in the License to Carry application process, so make it more standardized and quicker. This looks overall positive to me. Â We need more standardization. As it stands, our Sheriffs often like to use processes for application that are out of line with general practice in the state. For instance, Montgomery County gives you a “police card” to take to your local PD and get them to sign off on the application. They will do same day issue, but the process isn’t nearly well defined enough under state law, and more standardization I think can only be a positive thing.
SayUncle is reporting Todd Jarrett would seem to be leaving Para to start his own 1911 company. ParaUSA and Todd were gracious enough to host gun bloggers a few summers ago, and I think I can safely say we all wish Todd the best of luck in his new endeavor. That 360 degree shoot house was the most fun I’ve ever had with a gun.
Possible threeper flag spotted at a Brown victory rally? Did a bit of searching, and it would seem it’s an unrelated flag.
UPDATE: Whoops. It would seem Traction Control found it too. I didn’t notice the second flag was a link.