Snowflakes in Hell

… when you go to clean the lint out of your dryer screen and notice an empty .22LR casing.  Bonus gun nutty points if you notice how clean it came out, and think maybe you should tumble some more of your brass through the laundry.

Thanks to Rustmeister, who found it, it would appear that a Pennsylvania school is stifling student free speech:

Donald Miller III, 14, went to Penn Manor High School in December wearing a T-shirt he said was intended to honor his uncle, a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq.

The shirt bears the image of a military sidearm and on the front pocket says “Volunteer Homeland Security.” On the back, over another image of the weapon, are the words “Special issue Resident Lifetime License — United States Terrorist Hunting Permit — Permit No. 91101 — Gun Owner — No Bag Limit.”

If I recall my first amendment law correct, which I might not, it’s lawful for schools to regulate dress code, but it has to do it in a content neutral manner.  In other words, it could proscribe all shirts that are not plain shirts of uniform color, it could proscribe an obscene t-shirt that could be construed as disruptive to the educational environment, but it can’t discriminate on dress based merely on disapproval of the content displayed on the shirt.

Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmens Clubs, Allegheny County Sportsmens League, and Pennsylvania Firearms Owners Association, along with several other groups, will be rallying in Harrisburg on Monday April 7th, 2008.

I have made arrangements to be able to attend this rally, and I hope you will all join me in going.  We are under constant assault by anti-gun forces here in Pennsylvania, and we need to push our own legislative agenda.  We can’t let the anti-gunners gain an inch of ground.  We must let the folks in Harrisburg know that we’re here, and we’re active.  Our continued gun rights in Pennsylvania depend on it.

Randy Barnett has a post up which is lengthy, but well worth the read, on new originalism vs. the living constitution.  It does contain a little bit about the second amendment, since I know most of us are interested in that here.  It amazes me how good of a litmus test your views on that particular topic are in terms of how you view not only constitutional interpretation, but on the proper relationship between a people and its government.

Apparently New York Governor Elliot Spitzer knows it well.

Looks like it to me.  I might not always agree with David’s approach to activism, but to suggest that he’s implicitly threatened anyone, or that his blogging activities might bring the wrath of federal law enforcement on him is offensive to not only the first amendment, but the very principles this country was founded on.

Bitter has more on OWAA.  Seems they canceled their planned event with anti-hunting and anti-gun forces.  Hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts need to understand who pays for most of the wildlife management and upkeep of public lands, and it’s not them.  Both hunters and shooters pay for wildlife management through the federal “Pittman Robertson” excise taxes on guns and ammunition.  Next time you hear a hiker bitch about sunday hunting, remind them who pays for the trails they like to hike on.

I would note that this kind of thing would be impossible if we didn’t have a vibrant civilian shooting culture.  Fighting the gun banners is not just a matter of preserving our sporting heritage, and right of self-defense, it’s a matter of national security as well.

Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?  The Outdoor Channel’s Michael Bane will be providing bloggers attending the Second Amendment Blogger Bash with a happy hour.  I have Comcast Cable, so sadly, I don’t get to watch Michael’s show, but for those of you who have cable providers who do not suck, you can catch his show on the Outdoor Channel.

Tam talks about the Newbery Medal, which is presented for outstanding children’s books.  Particularly of interest is the 1942 winner:

Thanks to a good friend, I have just finished reading the 1942 Newbery winner, a book entitled The Matchlock Gun. I can only shake my head and agree with my friend that this wonderful little tale would never survive in a modern children’s library. You see, from cover to cover the whole book would be deemed thoughtcrime in today’s America.

I can’t imagine it today either.  First off, few people know what a matchlock gun is.  Secondly, it’s entirely unPC.  We don’t think favorably of militia service today, because it’s become associated with exploding federal buildings, thanks to the hysterical media, but back then, the idea was properly understood.

I do believe on gun rights, that we’re winning most of the political battles these days, but culturally, things aren’t what they used to be.  We have a lot of challenges on that front, and it’s rough to make any progress with today’s media culture.  What we can accomplish politically is dictated by the limits of the population at large, and the further we drift from stories like The Matchlock Gun, the harder it’s going to be to make real progress in restoring the second amendment back to its original meaning.

The VPC has uncovered our dastardly scheme!

What’s even more interesting is that they are buying guns for self-defense.  I thought self-defense was a no-no in Europe as a reason for having a firearm?  Well, the Austrian women shall not go poorly armed.  I don’t have any complaints about my Austrian Tupperware, and I doubt these women will find much to complain about either.

One of the things that has made me a bigger advocate of Open Carry than I have been in the past is that technology is making concealment harder and harder.

You can count on societies moving toward democratic totalitarianism to develop technologies such as this, but in some ways it’s inevitable.  It will be possible in the future to have near perfect enforcement of some laws.  We have to argue what kind of laws we are willing to live under.

Experts are saying we can expect to see 4 dollar a gallon gas this spring.  As much as I hate the idea of this, because it costs me a 41 dollar tank of gas to see Bitter at current prices, I have to admit that as much as I might complain about gas prices, it’s important to put it in perspective.  At four dollars a gallon, I would be paying 52 dollars a tank to fill up in order to see Bitter.

For tolls on the way down there and back, I pay 17 dollars.  Delaware charges 4 dollars in each direction.  Maryland charges 5 one way, and 2 dollars each way for the tunnel.  Now, I bypass Delaware’s tolls both ways to save the 8 dollars.  It only adds about 10 minutes to the trip time each way, so I think it’s worth the savings.  Most of the times I stop for gas or food on my bypass route to kill two birds with one stone.

But today, Bitter and I went for an early dinner, late lunch to Old Glory, our favorite BBQ joint in The District.  I have to concede that on a typical weekend we spend more on entertainment and food than we do on gasoline consumption to see each other.  The real danger to the economy is that everyone is going to cut back on this kind of spending because motor fuel is generally a fixed cost over the short term.  But it should give us an idea how useful this stuff is, that we’re willing to keep spending more and more money on it, cutting back on other things in order to afford it.