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Labels: gun rights
Never forget!
I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win
I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
Sorry, high pressure isn't included.
My nephew Shippy makes very pretty ceramic items. Click here to visit his online studio. Give someone one of these, and you can be sure that they don't already have one!
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Other blogs you may enjoy:
My civilian gun defense use blog
My daughter's blog
Pete Drum's Web Page
Gun Laws Don't Work
instapundit.com
Dissecting Leftism -- By John Ray
A courageous Briton arguing for relaxing Britain's gun control laws
Right Thoughts
Final Protective Fire
Amitai Etzioni's Blog
Scrappleface -- Dangerously Clever Satire
Michael Williams -- Master of None
Another Conservative Blogger
A Group Blog By Iraqis
THE MESOPOTAMIAN: TO BRING ONE MORE IRAQI VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD
Specializing in discussions of discrimination and affirmative action
An Iraqi dentist
Promoting children being raised by their own parents
A federal law clerk opines about the law
Michelle Malkin's blog
Impearls: a blog as electic and interesting as mine
Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.
May not agree with this group on everything, but stopping the ACLU is high on my list
A conservative/moderate black blogger.
Another sensible American
Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party
Music, Politics, Motorcycles
Maggie's Farm: Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
A blog dedicated to "Documenting Saddam Hussein's support of Terrorism"
The blog of one of my fellow bloggers on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)
Buckeye Firearms Association, for you Ohio gun owners and activists
Click here for a FREE NEWSLETTER on Ohio Gun Rights from Buckeye Firearms Association!
Another conservative.
Neocon Blues
Conservative Oasis
Other Idaho Bloggers
Bubbleheads is a retired submariner
An Idaho State University student. A Democrat. Someday, she'll start paying income taxes and change.
A retired Las Vegas stagehand, of all things.
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I Am So Surprised
Kenneth Parnell, who was convicted of kidnapping and molesting Steven Stayner over a period of many years--and then kidnapping another five year old--has been arrested for attempting to buy a four year old boy.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Parnell kidnapped two children, and repeatedly molested at least one of them. This being California, he served just over five years--less years than he held and molested Steven Stayner.
I keep waiting for liberals to explain to me why it is so terribly unfair to give people like Parnell life in prison for their crimes.
I Suppose This Is Why California Judges Are So Notoriously Anti-Gun
They just know that every gun owner is as out of control as they are. Consider this recent Los Angeles Times story (registration required, but it's free):A Santa Barbara County judge has been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and could face additional charges after allegedly brandishing a pistol during an argument with her roommate at their house near Solvang, officials said Friday.
Her "domestic partner," Dykeman? If I were writing fiction, I wouldn't engage in that sort of playful naming.
Superior Court Judge Diana R. Hall, assigned to the county's Lompoc courthouse, was arrested Dec. 21 after sheriff's deputies received an emergency call from her domestic partner, Deidra Dykeman, officials said.
Of course, that's the difference between fiction and reality--reality doesn't have to make sense.
America's First Freedom Just Published An Article By Me...
It's about the colonial laws requiring you to bring your guns to church. I'm not exactly thrilled with the title they gave the article (but it at least isn't boring), but it's nice to see it in print.
Public Intoxication
Glenn Reynolds over at instapundit.com is upset because Fairfax County police are asking bar patrons who they suspect of public intoxication to step out of the bar, and take a field sobriety test. Glenn calls that "tacky," and suggests:Next step: Warrantless visits to your home to see if you're drunk, since -- after all -- you might get in your car and drive somewhere before you sober up.
Not really. Public intoxication is a crime (probably an infraction); private intoxication isn't. If the police ask you to take a field sobriety test in a bar based on actions that a reasonable person might conclude suggest intoxication, they aren't violating your Constitutional rights. (If there is no good reason for them to ask you to take a field sobriety test, that's another matter.)
Public intoxication is one of those little laws that might seem petty and bluenosed to many of you, but there is a reason that those laws are on the books, and it isn't because of drunk driving. It's because more half of the murders in the U.S. take place under the influence of alcohol or alcohol and some other drug. It isn't just the killer, either, but the victims as well are often drunk. Intoxication also plays a big part in suicide, rape, child molestation, and surprisingly enough, even economic crimes like robbery. Reduced inhibitions cause a lot of people to do things that they otherwise would have enough sense not to do. (I've been to enough office parties over the years to see the proof of this many times--some time I will tell you about engineers driving motorcycles with pseudo-Viking helmets through the cubicle sea at a startup at which I used to work. That, at least, was benign in its consequences, and didn't require hospital visits or therapists.)
Those of you getting ready to start the emails telling me how much better it would be if marijuana were legal, because it doesn't make people do the horrible things that alcohol does--don't waste the electrons. There are arguments for legalization, but that's not one of them. Yes, I know that potheads tend not to be so aggressive, but I have plenty of horror stories about the disinhibiting effects of marijuana, and I have no reason to believe that increasing the number of intoxicants is going to solve the problem. In my experience, most potheads are also serious drinkers, because the core problem isn't the drug, it's the damaged spirit that needs to spend so much time intoxicated.
UPDATE: I've received some unhappy email from libertarian-sounding sorts saying that what happens on private property is none of the government's business. This is a very libertarian idea, and I think that I have made this argument myself, when I was younger and more full of idealism (or something). Here are a couple of questions:
1. It's a business open to the public. On what basis can you say, "Everyone is welcome to enter and do business, but a police officer may not enter?" If you don't want public intoxication laws enforced, then you need to make the place enterable by invitation only.
2. If you assert that you have the right to have what rules you want on private property, what allows the public intoxication law to be ignored, but not the murder law, other than your disapproval of the public intoxication law? Yes, no one has been hurt by being drunk, but that's an argument based on the notion of victimless crime (and equally valid out of the sidewalk in front of the bar), not based on private property rights taking precedence over criminal law.
3. At least one reader compared this to the Augusta National dispute currently under way. It turns out that the notion that an innkeeper is obligated to serve all customers who come in to do legitimate business goes back centuries in English law. It wasn't invented just to deal with racial discrimination. As long as a bar is open to the public, it suffers this limitation. A business that is truly not open to the public is (at least on this basis) a bit more free to ignore public intoxication laws.
4. It has been suggested that the actions of the Fairfax police officers may not conform to probable cause requirements. If so, then the problem is lack of probable cause, not enforcement of the public intoxication law.
5. It has also been suggested that this is some sort of shakedown or intimidation of the bars in question. Well, that wouldn't surprise me, either. If so, the problem isn't enforcement of the public intoxication law.
UPDATE 2: Many emails I am getting about this are upset with my view, but here's a reminder from someone on the frontline:As a former worker/co-owner of a package liquor store, I agree with you completely. I loved it when cops were out in our area...granted business fell off, but I didn't get near the hassle from the customers.
Public Intoxication
Glenn Reynolds over at instapundit.com is upset because Fairfax County police are asking bar patrons who they suspect of public intoxication to step out of the bar, and take a field sobriety test. Glenn calls that "tacky," and suggests:Next step: Warrantless visits to your home to see if you're drunk, since -- after all -- you might get in your car and drive somewhere before you sober up.
Not really. Public intoxication is a crime (probably an infraction); private intoxication isn't. If the police ask you to take a field sobriety test in a bar based on actions that a reasonable person might conclude suggest intoxication, they aren't violating your Constitutional rights. (If there is no good reason for them to ask you to take a field sobriety test, that's another matter.)
Public intoxication is one of those little laws that might seem petty and bluenosed to many of you, but there is a reason that those laws are on the books, and it isn't because of drunk driving. It's because almost half of the murders in the U.S. take place under the influence of alcohol or alcohol and some other drug. Intoxication also plays a big part in suicide, rape, child molestation, and surprisingly enough, even economic crimes like robbery. Reduced inhibitions cause a lot of people to do things that they otherwise would have enough sense not to do. (I've been to enough office parties over the years to see the proof of this many times--some time I will tell you about engineers driving motorcycles with pseudo-Viking helmets through the cubicle sea at a startup at which I used to work. That, at least, was benign in its consequences, and didn't require hospital visits or therapists.)
History Repeats Itself: Arms Inspections
Half the time George Will just irritates me; the other half the time he delights me with his ability to bring up interesting pieces of history:The defeated nation had agreed to disarmament verified by the victors, even though it had not been occupied or its capital captured. Especially destructive weapons were proscribed. But the nation had experience evading compulsory disarmament. It mounted guileful resistance to inspectors, and citizens tempted to be helpful were intimidated. Plant inspections were denounced as commercial espionage, and impeded. The resisting government insisted that potential "dual use" technologies, and materials that could be precursor elements for proscribed weapons, were merely for civilian uses. (An explosion that killed 11 in a chemical factory revealed the continuing production of chemical weapons.) There were endless controversies about what war materials had existed at the time of the armistice. (Six hundred 105-millimeter gun barrels were found behind a factory's secret walls.) The government's liaison officers gave advance warnings to people at sites to be inspected. Arms were secretly shuffled from one depot to another.
This was weapons inspection in Germany after World War I.
My Wife's 2001 Chevrolet Malibu Is Haunted!
We have had electrical problems off and on for almost a year now. For a while, when it was wet outside, the entire dash panel would stop working: no gages, and worse, no blinkers! They fixed it. Then they fixed it again. Then they fixed it for sure. Now, the horn is chirping, somewhat randomly, sometimes while we are driving, sometimes while we are parked, with the engine off. Today, as we were driving along, the power door locks started to lock themselves--about every second or so. Sometimes, I press the unlock button, and nothing happens. Very, very odd. And again, it seems to be moisture-related--it has been raining and snowing here.
I fear that I may have to use the lemon law--the dealer is trying, but there is something very strange going on here.
UPDATE: The dealer reports that the Body Control Module (BCM) is giving intermittent errors, which would explain the variety of strange electrical problems that the Malibu has had. They are hunting for a replacement module right now.
Shocking: The Federal Courts Rule That Racial Discrimination is Unlawful
I'm sure that liberals will be horrified by this decision, ARAKAKI v. STATE OF HAWAII, which ruled that elected officials can be any race at all, not just those of Hawaiian ancestry.
I'm actually a little sympathetic to the idea behind this law. The election was for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and the theory behind limiting these offices to those of Hawaiian ancestry is that the OHA administers significant property that belongs to those of Hawaiian ancestry. After watching the slow motion train wreck of how the Bureau of Indian Affairs has mismanaged trust funds that it holds for Indian tribes, I can see why it might be tempting to make sure that those in charge would be Hawaiians. One theory is, "they will look out for the affairs of other Hawaiians more responsibly than non-Hawaiians." A more cynical view is, "If someone screws up or loots the OHA, I sure don't want it to be anyone that Hawaiians can claim did it because of racial hatred."
But the language of the 14th and 15th Amendments is really clear. Good intentions aren't enough; one law for all, regardless of race, no matter how much it upsets liberals to imagine such a world. (I found this on AppellateBlog, but the permalink to it doesn't seem correct.)
MInority Report
We rented this over the weekend, and it was really a much better picture than I expected, with some very thoughtful ideas at its heart. (Shall we say that I was not surprised to see in the closing credits that it was based on a story by Philip K. Dick--the originator of most of the interesting ideas in science fiction movies these days.) The ideas include: if you can tell with great certainty that someone is going to do something evil, should you prevent them from doing so? How should you punish them? What short cuts might you be tempted to take to make a nearly perfect system for preventing evil seem 100% trustworthy? And what happens when someone decides that the ends justify the means, and corrupts the system (just a little) to keep those means operational?
Along with the philosophical questions, a couple of plot twists to keep you from getting complacent about who did what, and some splendid action sequences, Minority Report also presents a disturbing picture of the future, where technology is wonderful, but where Americans have tolerated a very intrusive government in exchange for security (at least from murder).
At the same time, the screenwriters have not been completely seduced by the notion of a bright and beautiful future spoiled only by creeping Big Brotherism. At one point, we see a part of the District of Columbia that is clearly every bit as impoverished and destructive of its inhabitants as you would find there today. My son observed, "Wow! All that technology and they haven't eliminated poverty!" I explained to him that poverty is more about the choices that people make than about technology or economics.
There are a couple of mildly graphic scenes of violence, and some sequences where people are clearly making love, though this isn't terribly graphic. There is one disturbing sequence involving an eye transplant.
My Florida Concealed Weapon Permit Arrived in the Mail
I can now lawfully carry a concealed handgun in 23 states, with licenses issued by only three states: Idaho, Washington, and Florida! Next month, I will attempt to get an Oregon permit.
UPDATE: I have received a few queries asking how it is that I have concealed weapon permits from states that I don't live in. This isn't any great struggle. Both Florida and Washington State are non-discretionary issuance, for both residents and non-residents. Even in discretionary issuance states like Connecticut and Massachusetts, there are provisions for non-resident permits. Oregon, for yet another example, is non-discretionary issuance for residents, but discretionary for issuance to residents of adjoining states. A good place to start is http://www.packing.org, which provides information on concealed weapon permit issuance policies and procedures, state by state.
Bargains For Those Quick Enough to Grab Them
I was wandering through Schwab's bond market a few minutes ago, and I saw some Sears Roebuck bonds, due 2/20/03 available--with an annualized yield to maturity of 2.41%. This is a Moody's Baa1 rated bond--and with that kind of maturity, the yield is excellent! Unfortunately, it looks like all the other sharks reacted the same way, and my attempt to get those bonds came to nought. It is useful to keep your eyes open on this--I picked up some AT&T bonds due in 2005 with a 7% yield that way a while back.
U.S. and Iraq: What Happens When Realpolitik Runs Foreign Policy
The Washington Post has a very depressing article about the history of U.S. attempts to play pragmatic politics with Iraq. To the article's credit, it points out that in the context of the 1980s, trying to strengthen Iraq as a bulwark against fundamentalist Iran made sense; but like many actions taken for pragmatic reasons, it now comes back to haunt us. It is also important to recognize that this wasn't just a bunch of yahoos in the Reagan and Bush White House encouraging this course of action:The U.S. policy of cultivating Hussein as a moderate and reasonable Arab leader continued right up until he invaded Kuwait in August 1990, documents show. When the then-U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie, met with Hussein on July 25, 1990, a week before the Iraqi attack on Kuwait, she assured him that Bush "wanted better and deeper relations," according to an Iraqi transcript of the conversation. "President Bush is an intelligent man," the ambassador told Hussein, referring to the father of the current president. "He is not going to declare an economic war against Iraq."
"Everybody was wrong in their assessment of Saddam," said Joe Wilson, Glaspie's former deputy at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and the last U.S. official to meet with Hussein. "Everybody in the Arab world told us that the best way to deal with Saddam was to develop a set of economic and commercial relationships that would have the effect of moderating his behavior. History will demonstrate that this was a miscalculation."
It's Nice To See A Newspaper That Doesn't Make Excuses for Bad History, and Can Even Spell My Name!
The Rocky Mountain News carried an editorial both disagreeing with Judge Reinhardt's recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision about the meaning of the Second Amendment, and reminding everyone of Judge Reinhardt's impressive track record:Reinhardt's opinion also claimed that the individual-rights position "had never been adopted by any court" until the 5th Circuit decision.
That claim is preposterous, unless Reinhardt was simply dismissing state Supreme Court decisions. Independent scholar Clayton Cramer promptly provided an extensive list online, from Georgia in 1846 to Illinois in 1950, supporting his claim that "Reinhardt's view is actually modern and rare."
The Two Towers
I saw this over the weekend with my family. Very good film--perhaps not quite as crisply paced as Fellowship of the Ring--I actually found myself looking at watch a couple of times near the end--but still a splendid piece of film. There's one great line, where a fetching young lady demonstrates to one of the heroes that she is very adept with a sword. He expresses surprise (to the credit of the filmmakers, they have not Politically Corrected Tolkien's fantasy world to make men and women equals, as apparently happened when Heinlein's Stormship Troopers was sexually integrated for the screen), "The women of our nation learned long ago that those without swords may still be killed by them," or words to that effect.
Quarantine Laws Being Revised in Britain to Deal With Threat of Biological Warfare
From Reuters:LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Britain may impose emergency cordons around London and other major cities to stop people fleeing after a biological terror attack, The Sunday Times reported.
An enlightening book on this subject is Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. It is a novelistic treatment of the Great Plague in 1664-65 London. Even with its archaic spelling and grammar (if you ever have to write a natural language parser for English, remember that our grammar has changed a bit), it is still a fairly riveting account, and one that suggests overoptimistism at the end of that article:
The cordons would be enforced by the military and police to prevent people spreading infection to other parts of the country.
"Existing legislation is not flexible enough to deal with the threats we are facing," a government spokeswoman told Reuters on Sunday.
"On the setting up of health cordons, the law may need to be tightened in this area," she said.
A new civil contingencies bill would allow police and military to quarantine or evacuate people by force, The Sunday Times said."There will certainly be some panic with people jumping into their cars with their families to try to flee the city and avoid contamination, but they would be stopped," he told The Sunday Times.
American Television is So...Uncultured Compared to Britain
From the Guardian:Channel 4 was yesterday back in the dock over plans to broadcast a programme showing a performance artist eating the flesh of a dead baby.
There's more, but it gets even more unseemly, so you will have to click the link to see how bad it gets.
