Snowflakes in Hell

Bitter has tagged me to blog about 5 things people don’t know about me. I’ll give it the old college try:

1. I have a few chick flicks in my movie collection. Some of them aren’t my fault, but some of them are.
2. I am not gay, but I do like some show tunes.
3. I also think the NRA museum is a great place to go on a date, and I have done it.
4. In addition to being a shooter and firearms collector, I am also a home brewer.
5. I don’t care what other people say about Chelsea Clinton being fugly, I’d hit it.

I think I’m supposed to tag people, but screw that.

This is just really weird.

h/t: Volokh Conpiracy 

The court martial for Ehren Watada, who refused orders to ship out to Iraq, begins today, and it seems the judge isn’t allowing testimony about the legality of the war:

1st Lt. Ehren Watada, 28, of Honolulu is charged with missing movement for refusing to ship out with his unit, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. He also faces charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for accusing the Army of war crimes and denouncing the administration for conducting an “illegal war” founded on “lies.”

As his court-martial got under way, military judge Lt. Col. John Head refused to allow almost all defense witnesses to take the stand. Head previously ruled that Watada’s attorney, Eric Seitz, could not debate the legality of the Iraq war in court.

It seems to me this is appropriate, since this war was approved by Congress, it is constitutional and the orders to ship out lawful.  Watada’s attorney seems to be unhappy so far:

“If you are going to tie my hands and you are going to script these proceedings, then in my view we’re all wasting our time,” Seitz said.

This will definitely get me kicked out of the Libertarian Club to say this, but Watada is lucky he’s only facing prison time and a dishonorable discharge.  In wars past, he would have been lined up in front of a firing squad and shot.  When you join the military, you don’t get to pick and choose when you fight, or refuse orders to make political statements about the war.  It would be one thing if he refused orders to machine gun down a crowd of women and children, but sorry Ehren, you’re not a hero for refusing deployment orders because you don’t like the war, you’re a worm.

“He betrayed his fellow soldiers who are now serving in Iraq,” Capt. Dan Kuecker said at one hearing.

Yup!

Countertop has decided to give the virtual finger to Blogger and start up again with a WordPress blog. I will have to adjust my link to his new location.

I like WordPress, but there can be problems with running the MySQL back end on your TV’s DVR.  It’s also a problem if you kick the trip button on the surge strip and reset your time several weeks into the future.  But these problems can be mitigated by not hosting your blog on whatever computers you have scattered around your house.

I alluded to the fact that the gun ban movement was desperate to keep gun control on the radar screen. What I suspect has been happening, is the anti-gun folk expected the Democratic Congress to give them some real traction on their issues, and, are now finding themselves shut out, with a few sympathetic ears in the leadership, but a leadership who nonetheless aren’t willing to do anything.  This has thrown them into a bit of a panic.  While I don’t think we can safely call the Democrats our friends on the gun issue yet, far from it, I do think it’s good to point out when some Democrats do things that warrant our praise.

Sure, we have two faced Democrats, like Ed Rendell, who have a long and glorious history of doing everything they can to crap all over our right to bear arms, then suddenly give lip service to us to win elections, while undermining us behind the scenes. To be fair, we have more than few Republicans that fit into this category as well.  But we do have some Democrats that are really on our side.  Max Baucus of Montana is a good example of a Democrat who is willing to take up leadership positions on outdoor sporsman’s issues and work to preserve our rights.  I point you to this press release by Max Baucus, where he announces he’s heading up the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus along with Mike Crapo (R-ID):

2nd Amendment Protection: Baucus said he will fight any attempts to erode Montanans rights to keep and bear arms.

Now, we’ve heard this line from Democrats before.  We should be skeptical of any Democrat who says this, and doesn’t put his money where his mouth is.    One could point out that the CSC is mostly a pro-hunting caucus rather than a pro-gun caucus, and this would be true.  But he’s cosponsoring S.388, the National Reciprocity Bill, and that speaks loudly.

I may have problems with Democrats on other issues, and even the National Reciprocity Bill I oppose as it’s currently drafted because of federalism concerns, but I think it’s good to highlight Democrats who are willing to fight for us and thank them for their support.

For those of us in the gun blogosphere, I think it’s important to highlight another reason to loathe the politics of Ed Rendell. Let’s see what Ed hast to say on guns:

“I believe with all my heart that we need more gun control” - Press Conference 10/3/2006

“I believe with every ounce of feeling that I have that there are far too many guns.” - Reason Magazine 7/1998

“I just can’t say publicly what we want to do, we have to take these things slowly.” - Overheard conversation with an anti-gun activist while running for Governor.

“What I’m going to try mostly to do is convince the legislature to let Philadelphia have the right to pass its own gun laws. We had that, when I was mayor, up until 1996 – then they took it away from us. I’d like them to give us that right back,” [Sebastian: It was taken away because the city tried to pass its own assault weapons ban and wouldn't issue carry licenses]

“The sheer cost of defending these suits would be hard on the gun industry”.

“The impact of so many cities’ filing suit all at once would be monumental for manufacturers. . . . They don’t have the deep pockets of the tobacco industry, and it could bring them to the negotiating table a lot sooner.”

“I might sue the entertainment industry for glorifying gun violence.”

“I favor the one-gun-a-month legislation that’s passed in Virginia and South Carolina, which limits handgun sales to one gun per month”

“I thank the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for their continuing support and their commitment to making Pennsylvania a safer place to live.”

“Neither the City nor the State are in the business of selling weapons; we are in the business of confiscating them.” Letter to a Pennsylvania resident, December 7, 1993

“To the people of Philadelphia, guns aren’t used for sport, guns aren’t used for recreation. Guns aren’t even very successfully used for protection. Guns are used for killing people.” ABC Nightline, May 26, 1998

“Rendell said that, as a city prosecutor, he had never seen a defensive gun use, and that as far as he was concerned, he had never heard of a defensive gun use. He said that he didn’t believe they occurred.” - John Lott relaying a confrontation with Rendell in 1999

And yet Rendell likes to say:

“There is nothing that I want to do to take a gun away from a hunter or a law-abiding citizen.”

Pardon me if I think you’re full of shit, Ed.

I am not going to agree to raise sales taxes to cover a property tax reduction.  Don’t we have a big surplus right now?  Ed Rendell is a tax and spend liberal.  How did this guy ever paint himself as a moderate?  I’ll take a property tax reduction from the surplus, please.

In Philadelphia, where the city takes an additional penny in sales tax, the overall rate would go from 7 percent to 8 percent. That would rival New York City, where state and local sales taxes add up to 8.375 percent.

Rendell’s proposal would bring Pennsylvania in line with New Jersey, which raised its sales tax last year to 7 percent.

Oh yeah, imitating New York and New Jersey.  Where do I sign up?  Because Pennsylvania just really needs higher taxes.  Thank god for term limits, but I have to deal with this crap for another four years!