- Gun Control's New Worst Enemy

I've got to confess, I find this slate piece on the gun control movement's new worst enemy fascinating:

Is Michael Bloomberg helping or hurting his cause? When the New York mayor’s organization, Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns, launched its $12 million advertising campaign to pressure lawmakers into supporting gun control legislation, the negative reaction from the NRA was predictable, but a week after the launch, the reaction from potential allies has also been cool. Senators and staffers working on bipartisan legislation say that Bloomberg’s effort to mobilize voters is less effective because it is also energizing gun control opponents. It’s pressuring lawmakers in the wrong way, too. Any legislator targeted by Bloomberg’s campaign who ultimately supports gun control legislation will look like he or she is being bowled over by a nanny-state mayor who wants to tell their constituents how to live their lives.

Well that would be because he or she IS being bowled over by a billionaire nanny state mayor who wants nothing but to tell people how to live their lives. But the author of the piece John Dickerson, seems to ignore the fact that there would be no new pass at gun control laws except for Bloomberg and his money.

The left loves to accuse the NRA of ghoulishly trying to profit from the murder of children at episodes like the Newtown shooting. But they forget that the NRA waited a week before so much as making a statement about it. It was Bloomberg's organization "Dwarven Mayors Against Illegal Guns" who leapt into the political frey instantly. They are the ones who had their legislative goals staked out in advance, just waiting for another shooting. They are the ones who drowned their allies in the leftist media with carefully crafted press releases, position papers, cherry picked studies, and polls so slanted they even made NRA members seem anti-gun. If there was a ghoul out there after Newtown, it was the little man from New York, not anyone at the NRA.

And it was his money that caused the Democrat party to jump, even though they knew it was a bad bet. Bought and paid for hacks like Andrew Cuomo and his Democrat legislature rushed though legislation so poorly designed that they had to unwind it once they looked at the facts - doing so before the law was enacted.

The usual suspects all jumped for joy as well from the safety of their carefully gerrymandered districts. But now the brakes have been put on, and the future prospects for more infringement are beginning to dim.

In large part thanks to Bloomberg's well earned reputation as a bossy little know it all who gets off on telling the peasants how to live their lives, the gun control movement is weakening with every step they take. For all the money he's throwing at it, it seems the rest of the country isn't as comfortable with letting this arrogant little fraction of a man telling them what to do as the people of New York City are. Go figure.

1 million more people have joined the NRA thanks to him, President Obama, and their joint efforts on gun control. It was a political loser for Democrats in the past and it looks very much like it will be again. So it will be fun to see Bloomberg choke down this defeat.

- If There Was Any Question....

... then this should settle it:

NRA Confirms Adam Lanza, Nancy Lanza Were Not Members, Despite Certificates

But what's a little lazy "journalism" if it's a conservative group you're slandering right?

- Journalists And Guns

I'm not really angry about this, it's not propaganda. The guy who wrote this piece seems like he's honestly trying to tell the facts. But he's so desperately confused that it's hard to tell what the hell the story is really about. I don't think anyone would dispute that journalists as a class don't know much about firearms, but you would think if they're going to write about it so often they'd try to learn just a little.

Problems are everywhere in this piece, but there are high points. This for instance:

A loaded 12-gauge shotgun was found in the Honda Civic Lanza drove to the school with two magazines containing 70 rounds of Winchester 12-gauge shotgun rounds.

The headline on drudge said it was in the glove compartment. That's obviously not true, but that isn't this guy's fault. Still, my knowledge of firearms is pretty extensive and I don't know any kind of shotgun that would be legal in CT and therefore possible for him to use without an inquiry into how he acquired it, that also uses detachable magazines which can hold 35 rounds a piece.

The Saiga 12 gauge (which looks like an AK47 for you journalists) has a detachable magazine which holds 12 rounds, but none of them hold 35. And if it were a Saiga, it looks so much like an AK that one glance would have magically transformed it into a fully automatic machine gun for the news hounds on the story. Even the drum mags for this gun only hold 20 rounds.

Then there is a spotty math:

Sedensky said Lanza killed all 26 victims inside Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun. He says Lanza had another loaded handgun with him inside the school as well as three, 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster.

Sedensky said 154 spent .223 casings were recovered at the scene.

So he had an AR15, presumably with a 30 round mag, and 3 additional 30 round mags, which is 30x4 which is 120. But they found 154 spent rounds, so who fired off the other 34? I'm not pointing to a conspiracy here, it's obviously just poor communication. It may even be the cops fault. Cops are no Nobel laureates typically. But surely a professional journalist might detect a simple error like that and think to ask a question about it before publishing the story? No?

The author then goes on to describe the shooter's house containing a bunch of things that you would find at both my house and ikaika's, and several others you would also find at Friths. Gun Safe? Check for both Ikaika and myself. Shotgun shells and numerous boxes of bullets? Also check for both of us. Eye protection,binoculars, paper targets, and address of local gun shops? Almost certainly check for all three of us in part of in whole. And although the AP staff may be shocked to learn this, the three of us haven't actually killed anyone. none of those things is driving us any closer to it.

The guy seems to be trying so I shouldn't be so hard on him. But surely journalists can learn a little about firearms right? They don't have to actually go and fire one. They can do a little online research maybe. Reading is easy enough, and they can learn a lot about what firearms can and can't do if they try. There are 100 million people out there who will stop thinking of all journalists as idiots if they just went to a little trouble.

- Obama On Vacation... Again.

We are very much a celebrity obsessed culture, so it's impossible for the American media to leave the personal lives of our public officials alone. I think that's a shame. I don't think it's relevant which beach the Obama's hang out on, or where he plays golf.

It does bleed over a bit into character issues, and I think that's fair to raise. For instance, when George Bush ditched his holiday with the family to go have Thanksgiving with the troops in Iraq, I think that was worth mentioning. But I thought it was above and beyond, and not something that's required of a commander in chief. I don't require it of Obama.

By the same token mentioning that Obama does seem to take a little more time off than some is within bounds. But while he and his daughters and wife take a break, I think they should be left alone. The kids certainly deserve it. I don't think it can be easy being a child of the President. Just look at how the Bush girls were treated. Net net, it's a positive of course, but it can't be fun while it's happening, and they're just kids. Let them have a little private fun.

I don't think Obama is the kind of person I would like very much on a personal basis. Dedicated lefties tend to be relatively humorless, which is why there are all those jokes that end in the punchline "that's not funny". And if it came down to a discussion of his values versus mine, I'm fairly sure I'd end up making him angry by believing that those who work hardest should get the most.

But being President isn't an easy gig, even when you do it the way Obama does. And if he takes a little time off from destroying all of our nations institutions and replacing them with the federal government that's all right with me. That's a joke, but I mean the vacation part. I really do think he's entitled to it.

I think if you're the kind of person who hates the fact that he takes a break, you're missing the relevant point. I want my opponents to be lazy. I wish he were lazier. But even if he weren't, it's the job he's doing that I take exception to, not the man himself. Hate the sin and love the sinner.

- The "Smart Gun" Boondoggle

The left dredges this nonsense about intelligent 'use limiting' technology for guns every couple of years but it's always the same nonsense. The theory is that by some miracle of science someone will invent a gun that will only fire when "the right" person is holding it, and it can be disabled remotely near schools. Here is one of the more recent silly efforts.

But this is never going to happen. The government would have to make every other kind of gun illegal first to drive gun owners toward it, and even then they probably won't play along. You think the NRA is fighting now, just wait till the government tries to mandate 'use limiting technology'. We simply will never trust the government on this score.

To even try an effort like that completely misunderstands the role that guns play in a gun owner's life. That last is the key work... life. When we pick up a gun we imagine betting our life on it's reliability. We regard it with as much reverence and forethought as a test pilot does his parachute. And we will never let some remotely controlled interface get between it's effective use and us.

Even with today's technology we will readily reject a handgun for such mild offense as not properly feeding the brand of ammo we like, or if it has a sharp edge on the trigger guard that catches when we try to draw it. The idea that we would be so reliability obsessed today but happily begin to buy a gun that will only work when the drone from sector 7G of the Homeland security department turns some switch down in the basement tomorrow, is utterly ridiculous. Even if you could make it as reliable as today's firearms (which I will only believe when I see) we still won't go along.

A great book to read if you want to get an excellent idea of how firearms owners feel about their favorite tools is

"American Rifle - A Biography".

It's a stellar book about the development of the American affinity for the rifle from the revolutionary war through the development of Eugene Stoner's precursor to the Modern M4 rifle. It also details how US government's Armory, charged with supplying the troops, obsessed over the multitude of tradeoffs between reliability and accuracy; between weigh and recoil; between power and precision. It's a stellar representation of what every gun owner goes through at least in part, when choosing a firearm for himself.

So you liberals in academia who think you're working on the equivalent of the cure for the common cold of firearm violence, don't bet on it. I know I won't buy one until every single policeman has one, and we've started issuing them to the troops. Then maybe you can count me in and not before.

- 3801 Lancaster

Words fail.

- Slandering Wayne LaPierre

Wayne's probably used to it by now, and he certainly doesn't need help from me. But I'm so enraged by this particular slander that I couldn't help mention it. From Roger Simon at Politico:

" Wayne LaPierre may have more blood on his hands than Dracula, but — fair is fair — he also has the guts of a burglar.

...

I should point out that, unlike Dracula, LaPierre neither kills people nor drinks their blood. It is just my personal belief that the NRA’s gun mania has led to the slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and children in this country."

The NRA spends more money promoting firearms safety than any other organization. The victims of most killings in this country are young and black, so obviously it has nothing to do with crime, or gangs, or drugs, or the utter breakdown of civil society in the fatherless inner city black community. No... it's all the NRA and Wayne LaPierre.

This is what passes for 'thought' on the left. Roger Simon should be ashamed of himself for insulting his reader's intelligence just to push another anti-gun propaganda piece. And he should also apologize to Wayne.

- Inequality Of "Self Congratulation"

If you've dedicated your life to 'making a difference in the lives of others' or 'doing what you really love instead of what pays well', or 'because you believe in helping children or the planet or whatever' then what in the hell are you doing complaining to me about inequality?

Some jobs pay more than others because those jobs contribute more economically. Those jobs usually contribute much less on the 'self congratulation scale' that liberals use to choose their careers. An accountant for a non-profit is considered more morally rewarding than working as an accountant for Apple, even though the latter almost certainly pays more. So in effect liberals are trading that self congratulation for wealth. So why do they also expect to be able to rewrite the rules later so they get more wealth too? Isn't the fact that they've 'made a difference' enough?

This is an excellent take on the "inequality" fallacy from NRO, and we have to refute all these ridiculous claims. But in truth I think it's much simpler than that. Make your choice, and live with the consequences. And if you arrive at maturity 40 years form now only to discover that you have less wealth than you wanted, the only person you are a victim of is yourself.

-Pro-Choice?

-NO SALE! Mark Kelly's Political Gun Purchase Rescinded

Contrary to what liberals want you to believe, a private business still has a right to refuse service to anyone they believe will negatively affect their business or their industry.

When you announce to the world that you are contemplating the purchase of an item for use other than it was intended, the prospective buyer is crossing a line.

The Buyer is not entirely honoring his side of the contract.

...And this goes doubly for firearms.

While the purchaser claims he is exercising his First Amendment Right visa-vis his Second Amendment Right, it still does not stand to compel a responsible business owner to close the transaction.

The following story pokes a giant hole into the Bloomberg and Brady Campaign position that "anyone can easily and readily purchase a firearm".

Enter Retired Astronaut and hubby of Gabby Giffords, Mark Kelly:

Responsible FFL Dealer Rescinds Kelly's Politically Motivated Purchase

Store owner Doug MacKinlay said Monday in a Facebook post of his own that he "determined that was in my company's best interest to terminate this transaction prior to his returning to my store."
"While I support and respect Mark Kelly's 2nd Amendment rights to purchase, possess, and use firearms in a safe and responsible manner, his recent statements to the media made it clear that his intent in purchasing the Sig Sauer M400 5.56mm rifle from us was for reasons other then for his personal use," MacKinlay said in the statement.
He added that the store will return Kelly's money, donate the rifle to the Arizona Tactical Officers Association to be raffled as a fundraiser and make an additional contribution of $1,295 -- the value of the rifle -- to the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

- Giving Bloomberg The (Trigger) Finger

Here is the Bloomberg Ad advocating universal background checks that reader: "Hell Is Like Newark" mentioned in the comments section.

As you can see the actor's finger is clearly on the trigger, in obvious violation of one of the most critical rules of firearms safety. One by the way that any 10 year old with even a passing acquaintance with firearms would know.

The fact that this lower east side poseur has his finger on the trigger while the Ad is being shot tells you that neither he, nor anyone else involved in the production of the Ad knew even the very first thing about firearms safety. Forget the assault on logic that the text of the Ad makes. That finger alone should make you disregard it.

Ironically, they are exhibiting irresponsible firearm handling, in an Ad titled "Responsible".

- When Culture's Collide

I'm not going to rave about Mike Bloomberg anymore. I can see when someone is acting as his own worst enemy.

But on a similar topic this story reminded me of an incident in my daughter's school.

Actor, entrepreneur, and writer Joseph C. Phillips, best known for his roles as Martin Kendall on “The Cosby Show” and Justus Ward on “General Hospital,” says his son’s school threatened police action after the student showed his friends a picture of his new BB gun. They also reportedly questioned his “mental state.”

My daughter had a friend in one of her classes point a gun shaped finger at another friend only to have the teacher 'wig out' on the kid. She apparently is a devoted liberal and anti-gun advocate. I suggested we should buy her an anonymous membership in the NRA (complete with the complementary subscription to American rifleman that comes with it), but I was persuaded against it for legal reasons.

My point is, those unionized public school teachers are the tip of the spear for liberalism. They are the people who confront 'traditional America' and are charged with the task of dismantling it's traditional institutions. Family, church, community, must all be opposed and replaced by 'the state', and it's the teachers who do the dismantling.

They are in effect ... Mike Bloomberg's foot soldiers. (no that's it... really.)

-Getting The Government Y(EU)ou Deserve

WSJ reporter on twitter: Cyprus border officials at air/sea ports searching bags and under orders to confiscate any cash sums over 10k euros.

If you've been paying attention to the news, the blogs and the Bloomberg tickers, you've been hearing accolades from the triumvirate of Eurocracy (Barroso, Van Rompuy and Merkel) as well as chirps from CNBC.

Essentially - if you have your money in a Eurosystem domiciled bank, you are a fool.
If you believe that this cannot happen here, you are an even bigger fool.

One other Item: The Eurosystem and the EU prides itself on its ascension through modern diplomacy. The Eurocrats consider themselves the most advanced political concert in the history of western civilization. This is the construct that the European Socialists were finally going to have their victory lap!
The cannon fodder, unwashed masses that send me angry mail for being sceptical of their beloved two-tone coins and size coordinated currencies are now treated to a severe dousing of cold septic water in a very late attempt to wake them up. They surrendered their sovereignty in exchange for a bizarre experimental mutation. A creation of spare parts that was going to save them and make everyone more sophisticated.
But like all spawn of socialist politics, eventually the monster reveals it's true self.
Rules of Law be damned!

Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union - PART THREE: UNION POLICIES AND INTERNAL ACTIONS - TITLE IV: FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS, SERVICES AND CAPITAL - Chapter 4: Capital and payments - Article 63 (ex Article 56 TEC)
Article 63
(ex Article 56 TEC)
1. Within the framework of the provisions set out in this Chapter, all restrictions on the movement of capital between Member States and between Member States and third countries shall be prohibited.
2. Within the framework of the provisions set out in this Chapter, all restrictions on payments between Member States and between Member States and third countries shall be prohibited.

The safest bet out of all of this: Van Rompuy, Merkel and Barroso will not be vacationing in the Aegean any time soon... any takers? The Eurosystem will either continue to roll along until the Russians invade or the Chinese buy them out, or a bloody revolution eventually ensues. (I fear the latter will occur!)

And the future of the Eurosystem? Well they want to invite the crisis to spawn more crisis. Look at this map. The Eurosystem wants to include more countries with double-digit unemployment and specious accounting in order to solidify the Union. It is a house of cards stacked on an edifice of Jell-O.

What a brilliant idea! Only a socialist could dream of such insanity.
European Union member states will be equally mired in unemployment and malaise for generations. They will share in the misery. The new symbol of the Eurosystem should be the Face-Palm!

%%%%%%%%%%%UPDATE%%%%%%%%%%%
Farage called it last week, but he's been sounding the alarm for years.

- SAVED! (again)

Last-minute Cyprus deal to close bank, force losses

The real problem here is that the people of Cyprus will not learn from this mistake. They think the mistake was letting 'the rich' make all that money, but in reality their mistake was allowing their government get big enough to give them everything they want. Because as we know:

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

Coming Soon... To A political theater near you.

- Why Don't They Enforce Gun Laws?!

I'm guessing "disparate impact".

- Americans Against Mike Bloomberg

First of all, it's nice to see David Gregory has finally gotten out of prison after his conviction as a gun criminal.

Secondly, I think a very productive line of defense would be to form a PAC called "Americans Against Mike Bloomberg".

His intrusiveness into the lives of citizens (what he would ironically refer to as the 'little people') is legendary, and well known by the American people, so it's not like we wouldn't be sure what the group is about. Standing up to any initiative he launches would immediately resonate with roughly half of all Americans, and I think a group structured that way would actually get a lot of grass roots support. Maybe if it was done assertively enough, and with a great enough sense of ridicule, the obnoxious little dwarf could be hounded from political life entirely. Now wouldn't that be nice?!

In a just world anything he put his name to would be the subject of ridicule, and I think a group like this would help to bring that about. But even if it didn't, it would be taking Alinsyite politics to their logical extreme and turning it back on the very people who invented it. The entire movement would be founded on the principle of personalizing and ridiculing.

In the end Americans would be better off for it.

- The Politics Of Universal Background Checks

According to Mike Bloomberg you people in the Red States should shut up and obey your betters. You obviously can't be trusted to make your own decisions about ... well ... really about anything. and the sad part is, you might just prove him right.

There is nothing I can do about the universal registration "background check" bill working it's way through the Senate. My Senators, Lautenberg and Menendez are going support any bill that restricts individual rights or disarms Republicans no matter how many of us call their office. My congressman will support it too. But for you Red State folks it might be different.

Make no mistake, this push for new gun law is nothing less than the Mayor of New York, lilliputian Mike Bloomberg trying to use his wealth to force the rest of America to be just like New York City. You people are all idiots as far as he's concerned. And he's going to do his level best to buy your Senators and Congressmen out from under you in order to compel them to do what he wants.

Call your representatives people. It's too late for us in NJ, but it might not be too late for you.

And a small reminder:

- More On The Ammo Shortage

Well for me the ammo crisis is now over. It's been months since I could buy shotgun shells at any of my usual haunts, so yesterday AM I took the long drive out to Cabelas. I got there just as the staff was rolling out a pallet of shotgun shells, and fought like a woman on black Friday to grab the last three cases of Winchester AA's in size 7.5. I even got them below the advertised price which explains why all the other guys were elbowing so hard and ended up flashing me such dirty looks on account of my success. (Why Cabelas would put something like that on sale in the middle of the greatest ammo shortage in living memory is a total mystery to me.)

And there is no doubt, there really is a shortage. It's not just a local thing. Cabelas is one of the leading retailers in the country for guns and ammo. In that space they have as much clout with suppliers as Walmart does in virtually everything else. So if it can be had at all, they'll have it. But if you checked their racks like I did, you saw that they had only a few cases or rifle shells. I'd say they were at about 15% capacity, and many calibers were completely unavailable. I specifically noticed that neither 5.56 Nato nor the 7.62x39 AK47 round were available at all.

Not only were there none of either of those calibers, They also had no reloading materials for either. No bullets, no brass at all. They did have smokeless powders is several types, but only in 1 lb packages. They also have very little in the way of pistol ammo. In the entire mammoth store there was maybe half a case of 45acp and another half of 9mm. There was No .40 cal or 10mm at all. They had some loose brass in 45acp, but no bullets, and nothing at all to to reload in 9mm 10mm, or 40 cal.

But the thing that was really surprising to me was they were totally sold out of .22LR. This alone I think punches a hole below the waterline in the conspiracy theories about this being drive by homeland security. HS isn't stockpiling .22LR. To them, spending someone else's money, they don't care about bullet cost. They're happy to have they're people train with premium quality match grade ammo in the largest size available if it's all they can get. They would sooner pay black Hills ammo $3 a round for custom crafted 5.56 than ever consider scaling down their caliber to facilitate their training.

Anyway, I now have 750 rounds of 12 gauge and after they're shot, it should be comparatively easy to get the materials to reload them. AA hulls are a top grade hull and I'm told I should expect 5 reloads easy. 750 rounds should last me until the end of May or so, and with reloading them, I should get at least a year out of the hulls - and have a raft of other sources for new ones by then.

I would have bought the materials while I was out at Cabelas, but they can all be had cheaper at the gun show, and that's in two weeks. I'm betting there will even be some 22LR for sale, but I don't want to have to pay up to get it. Frith, RA and I will try to report back after. Our plan is to arrive early - but we'll see how it goes.

- Not The Same As Me

The man pictured above is a monster. He is as despicable a creature as I've ever heard of. And yet we treat him as if he's the same as someone like me. He has the same rights, the same entitlements, the same benefits of citizenship. He's only 17, but in less than a year he'll even get the same right to vote.

But if you believe Mike Bloomberg, Diane Feinstein, and Andrew Cuomo, he is exactly the same as me, and we should both be disarmed. He should be disarmed because he shot a toddler who was asleep in his carriage. Why exactly must I be again?

I obey the laws and work at an honest job providing a valuable service. I pay my taxes, care for my family, and am a responsible citizen in every way. It's been years since I've gotten so much as a speeding ticket. Yet according to Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo and the broadest portion of the American left, this disgusting piece of refuse is a victim, and I am a part of the problem.

I'm honestly too disgusted for words.

- The Road Back To Serfdom

If the British Virgin Islands decided to drop the US dollar and instead go with a local currency called the Doubloon or something - it can have a picture of Johnny Depp on it complete with headband and pirate gear. Anyway, if they decided to drop the Dollar as their currency, how do you imagine the US financial community, who has hundred of billions of dollars on deposit there, react to that move?

This is the main reason the Russians are not super enthusiastic to seeing Cyprus go it on their own and leave the Euro. I don't have any idea what the deal will be, but there will be a deal. The Russians will make it with the Germans and the Cypriots will be told to shut their yaps and do what they're told - just like the British Virgin Islands would be.

There is no crisis here. There is just one more European government that is a Democracy only on paper, and has every intention of shoving top down rule down the citizens throats whether they like it or not. And a group of citizens that are just learning that thanks to generations of shirking their responsibilities as citizens, they no longer have control over their government.

The only thing that strikes me as even stupider, is the way the Cypriots are protesting. What do they imagine they're protesting? do they think that if they stand around and chant it will somehow make 2 and 2 add up to 5? They don't know who to complain to or what to complain about. But since they're out in the street waving red banners and rhyming, they think they 'participating in the Democratic process'.

In a way I guess they are. That does seem to be all that Democracy in Europe is these days. It's performance art. It's a flash mob masquerading as a protest march. It's a bunch of low information citizens who all believe in the collective, but have had their collective train run off it's rails by the people at the top. Now they have to pay the collective bill and they don't want to. So they wave their hands, and maybe set a fire or two. And then the government, with the Army behind them tells them to shut up, go home, and learn to live with it because nothing is going to change.

There is no more Democracy in Europe. It's all a sham. It's pretend. And the Europeans don't really want their to be any real Democracy because that would involve taking responsibility for themselves. They'd have to think and to consider. They'd have to make prudent choices. They'd have to decide between one good thing and another, and quit pretending that scarcity only exists because the rich have imposed it on them.

And that seems to me to be the very last thing any European wants.

- Just Asking for Trouble... Another Bright Idea!

Jersey City to unplug for 'Earth Hour'

"Earth Hour inspires us to consider the practical actions we can take every day to conserve energy, making the world a better place for our children and grandchildren," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a press release. 

 

We all know "what good" can come from turning out the lights in an Urban setting:

- I'm Calling The Ammo "Top"

This is out of control. And whenever a free market is out of control, it automatically corrects itself. (As opposed to when government is out of control, where it only gets worse and worse.)

- Meanwhile On Our Side...

I always enjoy stories like this. From the DailyMail:

On Sunday, Samantha Ford, whose boyfriend is serving in Afghanistan walked out of a Dunkin Donuts to discover a white envelope under her windshield wiper.

Initially she cursed her luck, thinking she had got a ticket, but after putting her two kids in the back of the car she sat down at the wheel and opened the letter - to find two $20 bills and an emotional note.

'I noticed the sticker on the back of your car,' the note began. 'Take your hero out to dinner when he comes home. Thank you both for serving. Him deployed and you for waiting. –United States veteran. God bless.'

Upon reading this Ford began to cry, knowing that someone must have read her bumper sticker that says, '1/2 of my heart is in Afghanistan' and decided to pay some love forward.

Veterans are overwhelmingly conservative. They've put their necks on the line for this country, and don't want to see it destroyed. There is a sampling bias in our volunteer Army for certain. But whatever the cause, these are absolutely the people on our side.

- The New Albany "Snitch" Line

It's $500 for reporting an illegal gun owner (or one who put 8 rounds into his 10 round magazine). How much I wonder, do you get for turning in a Jew?

Those people really have lost their minds.

- Does Andy Cuomo Have Downs Syndrome?

He doesn't have the distinctive look but he certainly seems to have cognitive disability:

ALBANY — In the wake of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York pushed through the State Legislature gun control measures that included not only a tougher assault weapons ban but also a tighter restriction on the maximum legal capacity of gun magazines.

But after weeks of criticism from gun owners, Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday that he would seek to ease the restriction, which he said had proved unworkable even before it was scheduled to take effect on April 15.

Excuse me Andy I'm confused. Does this mean you do need 10 rounds to shoot a Deer after all?

The gun-control law, approved in January, banned the sale of magazines that hold more than seven rounds of ammunition. But, Mr. Cuomo said Wednesday, seven-round magazines are not widely manufactured. And, although the new gun law provided an exemption for the use of 10-round magazines at firing ranges and competitions, it did not provide a legal way for gun owners to purchase such magazines.

As a result, he said, he and legislative leaders were negotiating language that would continue to allow the sale of magazines holding up to 10 rounds, but still forbid New Yorkers from loading more than 7 rounds into those magazines.

“There is no such thing as a seven-bullet magazine,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference. “That doesn’t exist. So you really have no practical option.”

OK. Let me make sure I've got it. It was vitally important to the safety of New Yorkers to implement a bill which including elements which were impossible. And now that you've been shown it's impossible, we are supposed to just 'pretend' that our 10 round magazines are actually 7 rounds? This seems to you to be a better way to handle things than actually repealing your stupid law?

I'll be honest, I never liked Mr. Cuomo. I thought he was a pile of excrement when he was prosecuting Wall Street guys absent evidence. I thought he was a scum sucking race baiting weasel when he was creating the incentives for the subprime crisis (see video above). And I still think he's about as vile a man as we have in public life. Even compared to someone like Obama, Andy Cuomo is a scum sucking dirt bag. Now he's flip flopping on these issue so fast it seems like some kind of verbal tick.

And we all know the only reason he's repealing this portion of his gun control law is because it was clearly unconstitutional under Heller, and he wanted to protect the broader law. My sincere sympathies to my many friends still unfortunate enough to live in this man's feifdom.

Oh, and he worked a tax increase for 'the rich' into the same bill. Waste not want not.

-Magpul Leaving Colorado (Done Deal)

Magpul says move out of Colorado "underway," and others will follow

 

- Intelligence = Risk Compression

First of all, if you don't read John Derbyshire's column every week, shame on you. You should hang your head and cease calling yourself a conservative until you get completely caught up.

And promptly having done so, you will find yourself directed to the excellent video above. That's Steven Hsu speaking about his presentation: “On the Genetic Architecture of Intelligence and Other Quantitative Traits.”

I'm about half way through it between phonecalls and other work, and a few things jump off the page at me:

1. It seems to me that there must be an 'upper boundary' for genetically crafted intelligence. Use of computers etc can make someone 'seem' smart in the same way that regimented training in a particular task can. Sepcialization will always provide an advantage in a specific task. But it does seem to me there will come a point when you've gotten as optimized a piece of meat in your head as anyone is ever going to get. Maybe I've got that wrong, but it looks that way to me.

2. The genetic process for increasing 'intelligence' amounts to a kind of statistical risk compression similar to selling volatility. Much depends on how you define 'intelligence', but as stated in Dr. Hsu's video, I think I can make that case. (The autism question and comment, at least support this view.) And when we get to the point where we are trying to modify the results (in aggregate or particular) I think we'll find that oh so familiar fat left tailed distribution - well known to those of us in finance - where every step we take to improve things is picking up a penny before the steam roller.

More another time...

- Obama Shouldn't Get His Hopes Up

First of all Yassar is dead. Second of all, I hear he used to like big "arian-nation" looking blondes.

(Not that Barry isn't handsome for his age.)

- When Liberals Sell Guns And Ammo

In a desperate attempt to be able to supply myself with enough ammunition to support my hobby, I've started rolling my own. In my area you can't buy so much as a single shotgun shell - but thankfully reloading supplies are still available. So I got myself a MEC reloader, some supplies and access to the online recipes for shotshell reloading, and have committed to this endeavor.

Most of the guys in my gun club reloaded already. With the taxes in our area, if you can get the reloading products in bulk it means a pretty substantial savings. I worked it out and even if I pay full retail for supplies (Including once fired hulls) I'll end up saving something between $1.29 and $2.06 per box of 12 gauge shells, depending on the recipe I use.

There isn't any real reason for there to be no ammunition available. It's just that nothing sells guns like the rush of potential gun control. Ask a liberal about this and they'll say that this has something vague to do with the NRA:

NRA knows Fear Sells Guns

The NRA Uses Uppity Obama Card To Sell More Guns

Examples like this are all over the web but they make no sense whatsoever. The NRA doesn't sell guns, it represents gun owners interests in government. Gun sales have nothing to do with what the NRA does. Besides, if liberals are really concerned about the way NRA reacts to more proposed gun control, then why on earth do they keep bringing it up?

If they really want to screw the NRA why don't they adopt the opposite view and never raise the specter of gun control ever again? Do they imagine the NRA will run out and start ginning up fear out of clear air? How do they imagine that will work? If the fear of gun control is what's selling all these guns, then it stands to reason that if you eliminate the gun control, you will also eliminate the fear of it.

This logic seems unassailable to me. But Liberals always did have a problem with 'cause and effect'.

Besides, I shouldn't really complain. As I said, most of the guys in my club already reload, and I really should have been doing it for years now just to save a little money. I only resisted because frankly, I'm too lazy. But now, thanks to Obama, the die is cast (reloaders please forgive the pun) and I'll be doing it this way for the forseeable future.

- Meet The Moore's

- How Many NRA Members?!

With the demise of the new "Assault Weapons Ban", the rhetoric regarding gun control is starting to cool off a bit. But I did want to bring up one final issue.

There is a statistic out there from "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" the Bloomberg puppet group dedicated to universal civilian disarmament. (They're actually in favor of making all guns illegal in spite of their misleading name) In their poll they claim that 74% of all NRA members support universal background checks. This has got to be one of the most all time laughable statistics I've ever read.

But in keeping with the liberal dogma of spreading progressive ideas, this is going to be quoted and re-quoted and re-requoted by every liberal to take up the "hey hey - ho ho" chant, until the cows come home.

There are roughly 100 million gun owners in this country and roughly 5 million NRA members. I'll bet any liberal $10,000 (for the hopey-changey charity of their choice) that they cannot reproduce that number with a statistically significant number of those NRA members involved in the poll. I'll even go so far as to beg the NRA leadership - please Wayne and Chris I really mean it - to conduct a poll of their membership themselves, just so we have a 'real' number to counter this ridiculous Bloomberg claim.

The NRA is a political organization, and the it's members (Like Ikaika and I) are fully aware that Universal Background checks can only be implemented with Universal Registration. We are all also very much aware that registration has ALWAYS been the move of government in advance of firearms seizure.

NRA members are NOT low information voters when it comes to gun rights issues, and will do everything they can (including probably open defiance of the law) to prevent that from happening.

It may be different in Mike Bloomberg's world but here in this universe, 74% of NRA members DO NOT support universal background checks. Bet my hat? I'll bet my spleen. I'll bet my right trigger finger.

How Bloomberg managed to find just the 37 NRA members who both live in Manhattan, and are dumb enough to be swayed by popular opinion like this, is a testimony to the efficacy of slanted polling. It's a monument to reality distorting statistics and their use in politics. If there were a Nobel Prize for lies, this would almost certainly win.

- We're From The Government...

Because Frith doesn't already have enough to worry about. From "We’re from the government and we’re here to learn everything about you":

The first census in 1790 asked a bare minimum of questions essential for establishing congressional districts of equal populations. Despite the abhorrent practice of slavery at the time — and the counting of blacks for purposes of their fractional apportionment — the whole endeavor was aimed at fairness.

In the 223 years since, the census has spawned an entire federal bureaucracy with tentacles reaching into the farthest hidden crannies of the country. It asks darkly invasive questions that are unnecessary at best.

At worst — which is almost always the case with the Federales — the questions are aimed at twisting fairness inside out. It is how bureaucrats in the federal government summarily pick winners and losers in some small town thousands of miles away.

So, drunk on this power and addicted to all this intimate, private information of law-abiding citizens, the government could no longer get its fix just every 10 years, as required by the Constitution to maintain congressional districts of equal populations.

So, these sicko data voyeurs turned it into a never-ending annual habit — forever snooping, demanding, collecting and massaging data. And then forever slapping down the nation’s hard workers and taking their earnings to give away to those they deem to be the losers who cannot be winners without the “helping hand” of the federal government.

Remember the immortal words of Rosanne Rosannadanna. "If it's not one thing it's another." This does actually remind me a little of the definition of "The Hungry" called to our attention by the great Thomas Sowell.

The way the government determines who is among "The hungry" in America is, they take the number of people who have incomes that would qualify them for food assistance. From that number they deduct the actual number of people getting food assistance. The remainder is, of course, "The Hungry".

One of the great faults we all posses is that we think people "think" like we do. In your case Frith, I think you also give them too much credit for being as clever as you are. You imagine them subtly manipulating our psyche toward supporting their goals. When in reality, all they're doing finding a way to define "The Hungry" that lets them convince snookie to raise their annual budget.

This isn't to say there aren't many worse sins than overestimating your opposition.

-Mr. Media's Monster Making Factory

Immediately After the Sandy Hook Massacre, all fickle-fingers of blame pointed squarely at the NRA and the Gun Culture.

The media wanted this. The Networks and kooky liberal rags attempted to "dog-pile" on the NRA and responsible firearms owners.

The NRA decided that it was time to show the media that maybe the culture of violence and mass killings were cultivated by TV, Video Games, Bad Music and Movies.

We've been treated to a constant and steady barrage of misinformation in the wake of the NRA's statement.

We've also noticed that there has been a disturbing trend among these "monsters".
Adam Lanza kept a "spreadsheet".

“We were told [Lanza] had around 500 people on this sheet,” a law enforcement veteran told the paper. “Names and the number of people killed and the weapons that were used, even the precise make and model of the weapons. It had to have taken years. It sounded like a doctoral thesis, that was the quality of the research.”

But the press claims it is only reporting the news. What is "news"? How much detail is required for "news" to be sufficient? When a a fan runs onto the field of a sporting event, it is censored by the media because they "don't want to encourage copy-cats".

Yesterday the media decided that reporting the triple-life sentence of an unrepentant killer (The Ohio School Shooter) was not enough news. They needed to do a photo-essay of his sullen attitude and his brazen disregard for humanity at any level. They described in detail his every gesture and facial expression as thee victim's family members addressed him at sentencing. Many news outlets had to figure that a photo-journal and descriptive article was insufficient and decided to publish a video of this cretin.

This is where the Press gets it wrong, but it's not the press, it is the Media. They will gladly hold sacred the buffoonery of modern professional sports (after all the advertising revenues must be protected) but they will broadcast round-the-clock coverage of murder, mayhem and potentially elevate wanton killing to a cult status. And when the news coverage doesn't work, they find enough drug-addled brains and Hollywood leftists to go 3rd-party-full-retard for them. Case in point would be the Cop-Killer.

I wonder if statistical data shows the broadcast concentrations occur during what was once referred to as "family hours" or when children return from school. Just speculation, but I would suspect based on the full-blown internet coverage of the sentenced-killer's reactions, we may see more than a few copy-cats on the immediate horizon.

- New Gun Control That Works In NJ

I think as a 'feel good' gun control measure, this is workable for our state:

The farthest-reaching gun control bill in the Minnesota House, which would have expanded background checks to nearly all firearm sales, has been abandoned.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, said he will instead focus on a plan to extend background checks to all purchases at gun shows, but not other private gun sales or transfers.

I personally think this would be a good rule for the NJ legislature to adopt. Wondering how I can say such a thing? Have I finally wigged out? Have I gone over to the other side for some unknown reason? Hardly. The main reason I say it is this:

There are no gun shows in NJ.

- The "Idea" We've Been Waiting For

What disincentive does the federal government have for issuing new debt? Why should it ever resist the urge for more, and more, and more? In truth there is only one reason to even slow new debt issuance; the comparative unwillingness of lenders to continue to buy that debt.

So naturally, if we are to devote our collective selves to the progressive philosophy of letting politics trump all the constraints of reality, we must abolish that disincentive. Only then can we enter a bright new age of government funded rainbows and unicorns for all.

New debt represents a tax on wealth generated by voters of the future. The goods bought with it are consumed today, but the payment is put off. So liberal boomers, (known formerly as the hedonists of the 60's, the "ME" generation of the 70's, and the greed mongers of the 80's) who all vote for politicians of today, can have stuff that they haven't paid for themselves, but still get to enjoy. When the party is over and the bill comes due, they will be absent, and they know it. So our self interested pols are always more than happy to buy another round on the house.

The Cyprus situation has given us a glimpse of what unrestrained government power would do to the staples of western civilization like 'private property'. And the fact that the parliament wouldn't vote for it was only because they truly believed that if they voted for it in the evening, the mob would have them all hanging from lampposts in the morning. But there are other, more subtle ways to 'appropriate' unearned wealth by government.

This is actually one I've been waiting for, for some time - making the purchase of Treasury debt mandatory. In this case the idea of 'too big to fail' is the excuse offered, but that's not really the point. The point, is to eliminate the constraints imposed by "supply and demand" when it comes to US Treasury debt.

This is still in the 'concept' phase of the liberal idea generation machine. First an Op-Ed is written (by a respected Academic if they can find one) as a sort of 'trial balloon'. Then as the polls are taken, the message around it is carefully crafted to allow pols to slip it past the low information voters. Next will be the Democrat house member from a reliably leftist district who proposes it with the new messages, to see how it floats with the Washington Press corps.

I'm not an expert in political messaging, but at the moment I'd look for them to offer it up as a "win - win" where the Fed balance sheet is shrunk without detrimental effect on rates, and the too big to fail banks are brought "under control" by more direct federal management of their risk. Initially, I'd bet the debt isn't even put into the depositors accounts directly - that will come later as we get a little further down the slippery slope. For now it will be enough to impose this on the banks prop accounts. But what's good for the goose is eventually good for the gander, especially when it's the fox making the rules for both.

Follow this issue, and start looking into foreign places to store your wealth. Because when the Congress finally gets this idea through the sausage maker it's as good as done. They can already redistribute the money they take from you. This will be redistributing before you've even earned it. Most foreign banks will no longer accept accounts from Americans (thanks to our policies with regard to tax avoidance) so protecting your wealth may take a little 'outside the box' thinking. The problem is that you need to find somewhere that offers the protection of contract enforcement and rule of law, that can also resist bulling by the US government. In the west that's certainly a tough trick. you don't want to go from the frying pan to the fire. Maybe there is a solution in the gulf states, who have a long history of telling the US regulators to mind their business.

I wish I had better answers.

I can't control what you do of course. But as this issue begins to sound more 'viable' I'm going to start slowly working my way nearer to a lifeboat if I can find one. And remember, it won't just be your bank account. Any fungible assets can have 'dollars' replaced with Treasuries, breaking the last remnant of reality's leash on government. Then it's rainbows every day and a unicorn in every pot.

- This Photo Triggered A Visit From NJ Police

Ever since my daughter was born I've lived in constant (if somewhat muted) fear of this kind of thing:

The young man in the photo is the 11-yr-old son of Shawn Moore. The gun is a .22 rifle, a copy of the AR-15, but a 22 caliber. The photo was posted on Facebook by a proud father. That Facebook posting apparently triggered an anonymous call to New Jersey’s Department of Youth and Family Services (DYFS). On Friday night, March 15th, two representatives from the state’s social services office (along with four local police officers) came to the Moore home and demanded to see the family’s firearms.

According to Moore’s lawyer, Evan Nappen (an attorney with considerable expertise in NJ’s very strict gun laws), the situation was “outrageous.”

Here’s what Moore alleges on the Delaware open carry forum:

- NJ’s Department of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) came to his home, accompanied by police officers. They claimed to be responding to a call about a photo of a young boy holding a firearm. (photo above)
- Without a search warrant, DYFS demanded entry into Moore’s home and access to all of his firearms. Moore was not initially there, but his wife called him.
- With his lawyer listening to the exchange on the phone with police and DFYS, Moore denied entry to his home and access to his safe where he stores his guns.
- When Moore requested the name of the DFYS representative, she refused to give it to him.
- After threatening to “take my kids,” the police and Family Services worker left — “empty handed and seeing nothing.”

This was the right way to handle it of course, and everyone with a firearm in NJ knows Evan Nappen, who literally wrote the book on coping with NJ's ridiculous firearms laws. So they're in good hands. The process is to politely refuse compliance, and immediately engage an attorney (Nappen, if you can get him.) But under no circumstances do you allow the police in your home without a warrant.

No violence or shouting. no need to get angry. They will only use that as 'probable cause' to believe there is criminal activity, excusing them from the warrant. But you can and should politely refuse compliance, and under no circumstances allow them into your home until advised otherwise by an Attorney.

There are gobs of liberal buttinski Bureaucrats who believe they have a right to but into your life in NJ. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the photo above. It's a kid with a gun. If you see how he's holding it, and where his fingers are, he's even holding it correctly. He looks to me to be a responsible kid for an 11 year old, and I'd be proud to stand beside him at the range - or wherever. Nothing wrong at all in any way that I can see.

But to a certain flavor of liberal, this is evidence of a family in crisis. This is evidence of "child abuse". This is proof that the children must be taken from this house of horrors and handed over to the well meaning state system where they can be cared for properly, according to liberal dogma. I feel dirty just saying it.

The state government in NJ will do whatever it can to bully and harass you into compliance with their will - whether it's actually within the law or not. But we must all be prepared to push back. Our civil servants (cough) are bound by rules. And if you hold them to them, they must comply. No need to get angry. But no need to comply either. Hold them to the letter. Demand to see the warrant. No warrant, no entry, no way.

More at the link.

- Racist Gun Control

I've been saying this very thing for years. It's nice to see some others recognize it as well.

ht FR

Who Has Dangerous Information?

I have stated before that the Elite that Knows Me seeks to satisfy a different desire than banning certain weapons in the Feinstein bill: "However, deep within this new legislation, the Elite that Knows Me seeks what they believe to be the real gem. Your information - because that will ensure your silence." Now comes this interesting story about a spreadsheet. Isn't there a way we could have known that the "Sandy Hook Gunman" was accumulating such dangerous information?  Will our government please do something about that for the children? %%%%%%%%%%%%UPDATE FROM TOM%%%%%%%%%%%%

I told the guys that I wouldn't edit their text. They can always say what they like whether I agree or not. I change the formatting sometimes, but that's as far as I go. And in this case I'm "adding text" rather than modifying, so I think it slips under the wire too.

The daily mail has the following quote:

'They believe that he picked an elementary school because he felt it was a point of least resistance, where he could rack up the greatest number of kills. That's what (the Connecticut police) believe.

If ever there were support of the view that "Gun Free School Zones" are dangerously idiotic, this is it. It would be really nice if the press were to mention that ... just once.

- NJ is 49 of 51 For Gun Owners

I'm sure this is no surprise to readers here. But NJ is something less than a self defense friendly state. Guns And Ammo magazine has done a little online scoring with a nice graphic to go with it. And it turns out that but for Andrew Cuomo, across virtually every metric NJ would have been dead last of 50 states. Only the completely dysfunctional District of Columbia was worse.

The biggest surprise for me was that Hawaii actually has a lower rate of gun ownership than NJ. but not for NJ's lack of trying. If we were separated from our nearest neighbor by 2000 miles of water, I'm sure we'd have taken the title on that score too. But I guess when "illegal guns" kill people in California (all on their own of course), they don't find their way to Hawaii. Guns may kill, but they sure don't swim.

Anyway I thought it was interesting.

- Where Did He Get The Ammo?

At the risk of seeming uncharitable (like you guys don't know me already), I don't really have much sympathy for suicides. I have a great deal for the people who mourn them, but not people themselves. Which is really just to justify the tone of this piece's title. But the truth is, I've answered my own question.

A man walks into Dicks Sporting Goods in Fairless Hills PA, uses a pistol to rob a shotgun and some ammo, and then kills himself with the shotgun.

The answer here is obvious. He had no pistol ammo and neither did they. He didn't own a shotgun but he saw they had ammo for one. So he used his unloaded pistol to rob one, and then went through with the deed.

Shows real initiative if you ask me.

For those of you wondering, my local Dicks Sporting Goods still has no shotgun ammo, or really any ammo of any other kind. All they had was a half dozen boxes of revolver ammo in calibers that no one really shoots anymore.

It's become such a crisis for me personally that I've put in a bid on a used reloader and I'm buying up shotshell crafting supplies supplies just to make sure I have enough for my immediate needs. It will still probably be three weeks before I can get everything together, but once I do, shooting season will open again.

- A "Change" Cyprus Had Better Believe In

Have you heard about Cyprus yet? It is to Greece as California is to the US. The most suicidal portion of a country run by economic illiterates.

It's public finances are exactly what you'd expect and it required a bailout from the EU a while back. Now the rulers in the EU have decided to get some value back from the Cypriots to cover the cost. They've voted for a tax on all bank deposits, 9.9% above 100,000 and 6.75% below. The public reaction to this was on the mild side in my opinion. Not a single politician has been killed yet.

There was an immediate bank run of course. What would you expect? Today there isn't an ATM on the island that still has cash in it. And although the vote of the local parliament which would be required to approve the tax has been postponed, when the banks open Monday they will all be emptied. That is, unless it becomes illegal to empty them sometime between now and then. The Cypriots aren't foolish enough to believe that they can trust their government when it comes to something like this. "Fair Share" works great when it's the other guys' share you're talking about, but is less popular in situations like this.

In my business we sometimes talk about asteroid insurance as an example of a thought process. What you do is you sell insurance against the likelihood of an asteroid of a certain size striking the earth with fantastic payouts - say 100,000,000 to one so $10 will buy you 1 Billion in insurance. But you make sure the size of the asteroid is big enough so that it will so damage the functioning of society that you will never be compelled to pay. The Army will be busy preventing looting, the courts will be vacant, and the lawyers will all be running for their lives like everyone else. One thing about a dark age is that there is plenty of darkness to slip away into.

There's some of that in this Cyprus situation. It's not just that the EU unicorn farmers have so intruded into the natural checks and balances of the free market so that nothing works correctly anymore. To readers here that much is already obvious. But the Cyprus public is beginning to realize that all the things they put faith in, the very institutions of the modern society are all just artificial constructs. They are a veneer of civilization over a 'reality' which is as shamelessly brutal and cruel as any the world has ever seen. A veneer that thin can be peeled back or stripped away entirely in the blink of an eye. And the EU has decided that Cyprus could use a little stripping right now.

And that veneer isn't only over Cyprus, it's everywhere. But to be perfectly frank, I don't think Florida retirees will be waking this morning and saying to themselves "If it can happen in Cyprus then it can happen here too!", even if they probably should. It's just not similar enough to our environment for most of us to see the parallel. But what all those pensioners are forgetting is that liberalism (or progressivism or whatever) is highly incremental. They won't do it today of course, because they can't. But they'll get to a point where they can, one tiny drop at a time. Drip, drip, drip.

Personally I don't think anything will come of this in America. Even after 5 years of Obama and the Democrats making up new rules as necessary to accomplish whatever they like, and ignoring many others they don't, most Americans still feel like their government won't do anything that is directly contrary to their interests. I think that's a mistake. The only way you can be really sure that your assets are totally safe from confiscation is to hold those assets in a form they don't know about or can't get to. They'll even be seizing safe deposit boxes before it's all over. That's what happens when someone else decides what your 'fair share' is.

I used to think the EU would break up, but a while back I changed my mind. I realized that we in the private sector, we common citizens see this last economic crisis as an inconvenience. For some it's been a major inconvenience, that's true enough. But it isn't really a live or die event. But the to the bureaucrats in the EU and the Federal government that's exactly what this has been all along. To them this is an absolutely existential crisis. And they will do absolutely anything to preserve things more or less as they are - with them making the rules.

The ruling elite in government are so devoted to getting and keeping power that the only way anyone will ever take it from them is at the point of a gun. To preserve the status quo they will steal your property, put you in chains - literally anything. Whatever tyrannical act you can conceive of they will find a way to rationalize, and their apologist like Tom Friedman will praise them to the heavens for it. And it's not just the Europeans. It won't happen today in America, but it's going to happen. At this point it really is unavoidable. (With all the money printing that's been done it can all be worked through inflation without anyone really even being aware.)

No group of people in all of human history has wasted more earned value than the Obama administration. They call it 'investment' but their 'investments' have been losing VAST amounts of money. And one day that piper will have to be paid. You know they aren't going to pay it; what the hell do they know about creating value? If they understood that kind of thing they might not have lost all that money on all those 'investments' in the first place. Besides, liberalism is all about the self appointed elite making the rules, and the 'common folk' paying the price for their errors.

So they'll eventually seize your bank deposits, appropriate your real estate, and start taking anything else that's 'nailed down' enough for you to not be able to hide it. The rules that prevent that sort of thing will be rationalized away with empty platitudes describing 'fairness' and 'equality'. And you and I and really everyone will end up with less, while they end up with more. That's what 'change' has always really meant.

A while back I said that in a choice between punishing bond holders and punishing retirees or the recipients of entitlements, the government will choose not to punish bondholders, because they have no choice. Lending is an 'at will' enterprise. You can't 'force' someone to lend to you. And in the end force is what government always relies on. Before it's over they'll take IRA's, 401K's, pensions, bank deposits, real estate, security assets like stocks, and any gold silver or other hard assets they can prove that you have.

That's the 'other people's money' they haven't quite run out of yet.

- Francisco Franco: Still Dead

And the great Global Warming movement is still nonsense, as I've been saying ever since the 'hockey stick' came out. The Daily Mail has the proof.

The lesson we should take from this is not just that the people who lied to us should be hounded from public life and ridiculed every where they go. In my opinion they should. But it also should cast doubt on their method of reasoning. They were always just neo-marxist children who wanted to destroy the west. That sort should never be taken seriously.

- Working The CPAC Crowd

I'm not a huge Sarah Palin fan, but I think it's clear she's not nearly as dumb as the media has portrayed her.

And in this case she really looks like she's having a good time.

- Is Capitalism Moral?

I always thought it was unusual the way liberals relied on 'free will' whenever the talk is of religion and Christian morality, but think individual 'free will' is the worst of all possible things when it comes to economics. In the liberal lexicon, we must be allowed to act as stupidly as we like in questions of the morality of society (which for you public schoolers like me, is what religion is all about). But when it comes to issues of work, wealth creation and productivity we must only be allowed to act as we are commanded.

No wonder Detroit turned out how it has.

I found this to be an unusually good article (especially given that it's being published in the Washington Post) from Steven Pearlstein from George Mason University:

Careening from debt-ceiling crisis to sequestration to a looming government shutdown, the nation is caught up in a historic debate over the proper size and role of government.

That’s certainly one way to think about it. Another is that we are caught up in a historic debate over free-market capitalism. After all, if markets were making most of us better off, regulating their own excesses, guaranteeing equal opportunity and fairly dividing the economic pie, then we wouldn’t need government to take on all the things it does.

- Playing Dress Up And Pretend

OK this is probably unfair. (For you non-gun readers, his $500+ red dot scope is on backwards making it useless, and he obviously doesn't know it.) He's just one guy, not typical of all policemen. But the article does raise some more serious question.

I know I've made this argument before but this is pushing it to the extreme I think, so let me make a few other things clear. I think cops (for the most part) are right headed people and good guys. They are not Nobel laureates most of them, but that isn't really a job requirement. What this shows us is not that they are stupid. Anyone could make a mistake like this. What it shows us is that, like the rest of us, they too are limited.

Non-gun people learn about firearms from Bruce Willis movies. They imagine themselves diving from the car window as it careens off the embankment, while pointing their pistol and shooting the gun out of the hand of the guy 3/4 of a mile a way on the top of the bell tower. That's how they think it works, and is why they keep thinking that the scary looking guns are the most dangerous. It always works that way in the movies.

All this photo really tells us is, cops go to the movies too. They see themselves as the stoic bad-asses who defend the innocent from the predators of the world with little but their determination and their courage. They see themselves as part of seal team 6 in Zero Dark Thirty. But that's not really their job. Even if they train for it like this "Upstate Swat Team" (what the hell is that about... who needs a swat team in some sleepy upstate town?) They are still cops not soldiers. And there is a BIG difference between the two.

Actors play dress up and pretend for a living. In our culture they aren't the only ones. Personally I think it's an argument from bringing back the old Andy Griffith show on reruns, where Barney fife was allowed to carry a gun but he could only have 1 bullet, and he had to keep that in his pocket.

But I think the most accurate cop show in my lifetime wasn't The Wire, CSI (in my house we call that the 'dead hooker' show) or some other late night drama. It was Barney Miller. That was a mid-70's comedy about a bunch of NYC detectives who barely ever left their office. They spent most of their time eating donuts, complaining about paperwork, and pondering which coast of Florida they would retire to.

But what really galls me most about this photo is that according to the liberal views of east coast society, the guy in this photo is responsible enough to carry a concealed firearm, and I am not. This guy was obviously not trained at all, or at the very least, trained incorrectly. If the "upstate swat team" wants to correct that, I'll be happy to teach a class in AR15 basics for them, free of charge. That is assuming the state hasn't confiscated all my weapons by then. Since in their opinion, a mere 'citizen' is too irresponsible to own them.

- The NRA at CPAC

"The NRA's nearly 5 million members and America's 100 million gun owners, will not back down, not ever. I promise you that."

That's the reason I'm the NRA.

- A Gun Control Figure Head

If you think this woman holding the AR-15 looks a lot like Gabby Giffords, one of the most well known faces of the American gun control movement, that's because it is. From Breitbart.com:

Subsequently, Breitbart News confirmed the authenticity of the image through law enforcement sources in Arizona, and obtained a copy of the photograph from a source who requested anonymity.

The latter source was present when the photograph was taken, and said that Giffords had requested it for campaign purposes during October 2010.

According to the source, the image sent to Breitbart News was cropped to protect the identity of the person on the right-hand side of the original photograph (to Giffords's left).

The source, who is a member of the law enforcement community, told Breitbart News:

"We were told she wanted to toughen her image. She asked to come out and she wanted to shoot a rifle. She had one of our guys out there to show her how to shoot an AR-15."

Well at least we know for sure she's a Democrat. Only the left can get away with this kind of self serving hypocrisy and utterly fraudulent proselytizing.

And please forgive me for being totally insensitive about her status as a victim, but I'm told by Mike Bloomberg and all the anti-gun left that this issue is too important to ignore. So does getting shot in the head now qualify as a "mental illness"?

If so, then she no longer qualifies to own a firearm right? Diane, Chuck and the rest of the anti-gun left better get right out there to Arizona to protect us all from this dangerously deranged woman. I know she has rights (or at least did), but that's nothing when measured against the 'fear' of the people around her right? Or so they keep telling me.

- The Best Gun Control Arguments

That analogy about the Leopard and the gazelle really has legs. (Sorry Frith.)

- They'll "Overlook" Your Violation...

Mike Bloomberg owns a company, the principle product of which is a software tool supplied to me and my brethren in the financial services business. It's a suite of data gathering, charting and news tools colloquially referred to as the Bloomberg "Terminal".

This is a fairly high quality product as such things go and as a result it's the dominant tool in the industry in spite of it's 25K per year (per terminal) price. It is to modern finance as Microsoft Windows is to personal computing. It doesn't solve every problem, but it solves so many that it's hard to find a finance firm without one.

What I have always been annoyed with however, is how they manage their relationship with their customers.

Their licensing of this product is ridiculously restrictive. So restrictive that many things which are a common practice in the industry are absolutely forbidden by it. In fact if you were to adhere to the strict licensing of the tool, it would in effect become almost totally useless.

But most of Bloomberg's customers don't know this. Nobody who uses the tool actually reads those licensing agreements, and the people that read them don't use the tool. And the way the Bloomberg sales and auditing teams handle it when the find that you are not in compliance with your licensing, is that they are willing to "overlook" any indiscretions so long as you buy enough product from them.

In other words it's all a big scam to put them in control of your decision making with regard to data and trading tools. 99% of their clients violate the contract, and are forgiven by Bloomberg so long as they pay up. To my knowledge Bloomberg is the only company that manages their client relationships in a manner like that.

This gun bill from Chuck Schumer has a similar feel to me. You're automatically in violation of the law, but they'll overlook it if you're a family member, or 'the right kind' of person, or if you voted Democrat.

That makes me very uncomfortable.

- At Least They Only Shot The Kid With The Gun...

The NYPD's propensity for gunfire notwithstanding, the riots concerning the demise of a 16 year shot by two cops are just ridiculous. The idea that public rage offers moral validity to an argument should be rejected right here:

Protesters enraged over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police poured into Brooklyn streets for a third straight night Wednesday, pitching bricks, bottles and garbage in furious clashes with cops.

At least 46 demonstrators were arrested along Church Ave. in East Flatbush. Police struggled to control a hostile crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil for Kimani (Kiki) Gray, 16, killed by police on Saturday night.

Oh how horrid! What an outrage! What was this noble innocent doing at the time when he was pointlessly gunned down by those monsters: As officers got out of the car to question him, Mr. Gray turned and pointed a .38-caliber Rohm revolver at them, the police said; two officers fired, hitting the teenager. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Kings County Hospital Center.

Mr. Gray did not fire the handgun, which was recovered at the scene. Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said the six-shot revolver was loaded with four live rounds.

“After the anti-crime sergeant and police officer told the suspect to show his hands, which was heard by witnesses, Gray produced a revolver and pointed it at the officers, who fired a total of 11 rounds, striking Gray several times,” Mr. Browne said.

Actions have consequences, and you would think a black kid from Brooklyn would be able to figure out that pointing a gun at a couple of cops is probably not a good long term plan. But I guess the public isn't concerned with that.

When in doubt, hold a riot. If the 'ruling classes' don't recognize that things are different now and the rule of law is dead, hold a riot until they do. When the riot got out of hand the crowd was chanting "NYPD - KKK, how many kids did you kill today? " The answer to that question is "How many pointed guns at policemen?"

I have said that the first thing every 'youth' in the third world should earn is "Don't F*** with the US Army." Lacking other alternatives, the way they should be taught that is by attending the funerals and memorial services of their older brothers and cousins who failed to learn the lesson before them. I have also said that America won't fall apart but it will inevitably have 'no go areas' like Brazil or Argentina. In those areas I bet they'll all be chanting "NYPD - KKK, how many kids did you kill today?"