Snowflakes in Hell

Pop on over to see Bitter’s squirrel skinning video. Yum! I’ve been trying to convince my friend from Texas to come on to guest blog some fine squirrel recipes.

Having been born an raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, I can’t say I’ve ever looked at squirrel as a food source, but my friend from Texas assures me it’s very good, which prompted me to reply, “Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I’d never know ’cause I wouldn’t eat the filthy motherf****r.”

But maybe I’ll give it a chance next time I go down to visit her.

Our governor sets off the stench detector with his latest appointment of a CEO to the PA Liquor Control Board:

State Liquor Control Board Chairman Jonathan Newman is quitting to protest the “heavy-handed, political” method that Gov. Ed Rendell used to select the board’s new $150,000-a-year chief executive officer.

Rendell chose a retired politician. This reeks of returning a political favor:

Some critics claim the hiring looks like a political deal because he supported some major Rendell initiatives, such as raising the personal income tax and legalizing casinos, but Ms. Philips denied politics was involved. Mr. Conti couldn’t be reached for comment.

Ms. Philips said Mr. Conti chaired the Senate committee that oversaw liquor issues and was active in pushing for Sunday sales of liquor and beer. She said he knows the liquor business because his family owned two restaurant/bars in Bucks County.

No politics involved my ass. The real question is why we still have the LCB at all? Seriously, I get sick of having to drive to New Jersey to be able to get decent wine and real top shelf booze. Try getting decent scotch in a PA state store, and you’ll quickly see what I mean. Under Newman’s leadership, the LCB has done a good job of reforming itself, with Sunday hours, premium stores with better wine selections, and locating state stores inside of supermarkets. All positive moves. But the LCB still sucks, and it’s time the state legislature dissolved it and sold off its assets. I don’t see what benefit we get from the state being in the business of selling wine and booze, and I’m tired of the LCB continuing to pop up as a political issue. I think the state can find better things to worry about.

I just ordered a copy of Dave Hardy’s documentary In Search of the Second Amendment. I’m sure most of you gun bloggers already have ordered a copy (you have haven’t you?), but some of my LiveJournal folks might not have heard of it.

The title makes me think of Leonard Nimoy’s old PBS series “In Search Of…”, but I don’t think the documentary features a gun toting Mr. Spock. So head over and buy a copy if you’re interested. I know Dave has spent a lot of time and effort on it, so I expect it will be good.

Head over to Unc’s site and watch the video of people who’s job I would love to have.  Blowing up a dwelling-like structure with everything from an M9 pistol to a 30mm chain gun.  Great stuff!

I am not nor ever have I been a smoker, nor do I particularly enjoy coming home reeking of cigarette smoke after a night on the town, but I’ve never presumed that I should force my preferences on bar and restaurant owners because I don’t like it.  I avoid heavily smoky establishments, as a general rule, and that worked for me just fine.  That’s why I’m dissapointed that Philadelphia’s smoking ban went into effect yesterday.  There is one saving grace for bar owners in the city:

Private clubs and restaurants whose food sales are less than 20 percent may apply for an exemption.

But I’ve never bought the studies that second hand smoke is really that dangerous, or that public health is anything other than a cover for enforcing the majority’s preference onto business owners.  Smoking bans are passing because most people find cigarette smoke objectionable, and for me, that’s never been a good enough reason to allow the government to interfere with a proprietor’s right to control what goes on in his or her establishment.

I know many will argue that there’s a serious public health concern here, but I just don’t trust statistical epidemiological studies that have reason to be politically motivated.  I think showing a little tolerance, and accepting a little risk, is worth it for us to continue living in a society where people can still exercise property rights, and enjoy habits that the majority finds objectionable.

Congressman Fattah,

I read today in the Philadelphia Daily News about your crime plan for Philadelphia which is summarized as:

More cops investigating illegal guns, better rewards for tips about dirty firearms, and extra surveillance cameras to catch gun-toting bad guys.

Those are the basics of mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah’s plan to fight illegal guns, which he will announce today at Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia does not have a gun problem, it has a criminal problem. Until you shift the focus away from the guns and toward violent individuals that are committing crimes, you’re going to keep having this problem. I am happy to see that you at least admit this:

The majority of guns used to kill people in Philadelphia and around the nation are illegal,” said Fattah, a Democratic congressman.

Which is true. So why does your Congressional record and public statements contain so much support for restricting lawful gun ownership? Also, how does “targeted gun officers” that “clear firearms off the streets.” help anything? I am in favor of adding more officers to the city streets, but they need to go after the criminals, not the guns. The guns are a symptom, not the cause of your city’s social ills. Even if all the guns could be cleared off the street, if you left the criminals, they will just get more guns and commit more crimes, leaving the city right back where it started.

I’d also like you to explain how “a network of 1,000 police video surveillance cameras throughout the city” would help catch “gun-toting bad guys”. I’m fairly certain that gun toting bad guys aren’t openly carrying firearms around the city, such that they would be caught on camera. I also hope you are aware that there are approximately 32,000 citizens in your city who are lawfully licensed to carry firearms for self-protection, and approximately similar numbers in all the suburban counties. I hope your “gun officers” will treat these people with the respect and courtesy that they deserve.

We all want to see Philadelphia become a safer place, but I’m disappointed you’re perpetuating the myth that guns cause crime. We all know that’s not true. I would encourage you to focus on the criminals, and on finding productive ways to bring jobs and people back into the city. Focusing your energy on inanimate objects is only distracting people from the real problem, and doing a disservice to the city you want to be mayor of.

Sincerely,

Sebastian

I’m making some more blogroll additions here. I’ll be adding:

The Countertop Chronicles
Pro-Gun Progressive
mAss Backwards
Clayton Cramer’s Blog
The Ten Ring

I’m trying to branch out to read more gun blogs for sources of material. Countertop I’ve seen posting on Bitter’s site, so I figured I’d add him. I’ve been an occasional reader of Bruce’s mAss Backwards for a while, so I thought I’d become a more regular reader. Pro-Gun Progressive and Clayton Cramer differ from the libertarian gun bloggers I already read, albeit at opposite ends of the political spectrum, and The Ten Ring seems like a reasonable blog, so it’s on there now.

I will be adding more soon. I have to work on getting a decent RSS aggregation set up. I’m keen to use something in PhP that I can keep local on my server here. Up until now I’ve been using Thunderbird, but it has too many deficiencies for me to continue using it.