Snowflakes in Hell

Eugene Volokh has a summary of the ruling from the 11th circuit.  Eugene Volokh speaks of the entertainment value also, but a pipe bomb is a destructive device.  You can have plenty of fun with things that go boom without making a destructive device.  Just ask Joe.  Of course, this is ignoring the “defense from tyrannical government” argument, which I think is important, but I think the government should have power to regulate explosive ordnance, or other items that have little use for self-defense, and pose an inherent risk to the community, no matter how responsible a person is.

… when there’s more passionate debate going on in the gun blogosphere about shooting.  Hey, I’m happy just being able to watch this one from a detached distance.

It’s pretty clear by now that the federal government is completely out of control.  I’m in agreement with Yoseminite Sam about the new Con & Trade scheme recently passed by the House:

To say that I am angry is an understatement. One of the more outrageous parts of this outrageous bill is a requirement for a home energy audit upon selling a home. If your home fails this audit then the seller would have to pay to fix the problems outlined in the audit. So if you have an older home(like me) that has older appliances(like me), you will have to pay thousands of dollars to get new appliances, air conditioners or water heaters even if those appliances are in perfect working order. So much for the reduce, reuse, recycle encomium that the environmentalists keep prating on about. The landfills will be full of these still functioning appliances.

I’m probably a little less angry at the Amerian people though, because polls show that Obama’s policies are unpopular.  I don’t think it’ll be very long until that causes his approval ratings to take a hit.  I think that most people really had no idea what they were getting with Obama, as much as many of us tried to warn them.

But it’s not just Obama.  It’s pretty clear the federal bureaucracy is completely out of control as well.  Just yesterday, for instance, comes this story about the need to further regulate Tylenol.  And this is just the latest in a long line of insults.  It’s like, with the cat out of the White House, the mice now feel like they have free reign over the place.

What’s even more depressing is I don’t see the Republicans in a position to be able to capitalize on the unpopularity of Obama’s policies.  I don’t think we’re going to see a resurgent 1994 “Contract with America.”   Besides, we’ve been through the Republican Revolution once already, and I don’t know if liberty could afford another.

The only way I think we’re going to fix things is to build a movement to amend the Constitution.  If Republicans are smart, I would capitolize on this by calling for a Constitutional amendment.  First things first, we need a balanced budget amendment.  Second I think Republicans really ought to consider pushing Randy Barnett’s Federalism Amendment.  I think it needs some work to make it feasible, but if we can get a handful of states to pass laws opting out of the federal gun control regime, we ought to be able to get them to pass an amendment that limits the power of the national government.

The best part is, we don’t even need the Federal Government to do it.  We’ve been frightened of the idea of a Constitutional Convention, because it would likely be hijacked by the left, but why do we fear that?  Red states, even in the era of Obama, still greatly outnumber blue states.  I don’t think there’s much danger the country is going to adopt a new socialist constitution.

Given the nature of political life in this country, I don’t think there’s going to be any way to get the federal government under control unless we tie it down through constitutional amendment.  The progressives managed to greatly expeand the power of government through this method in the early part of the 20th century.  Why couldn’t we?

It’s always interesting to see how foreign media covers the gun debate in this country.  I can’t say it looks any different than what you’d find from, say, the New York Times:

Now America’s powerful gun lobby is pushing for the introduction of “commonsense” laws in Arizona that would allow people to walk into bars with guns — just as they did in the old days. Tennessee and Georgia have approved the measure in the past year and a similar law is now being considered by Arizona’s state legislature.

Pennsylvania is already the “wild west” then, and unlike Arizona, we have no restrictions against drinking while carrying.  Though, I think being caught intoxicated in public while carrying would probably be grounds for the sheriff to revoke your LTC.  Either way, I don’t see why this is always such a big deal.  It’s not like gunfights breaking out in bars is a common occurrence here, and we have a lot more LTC holders than any other state in the nation.

Evan Nappen is the foremost authority on New Jersey gun laws, which is no small feat, given how complicated they are.  He takes a look at the new one-gun-a-month bill passed by the House and Senate and concludes it has a number of drafting problems, including restricting dealers to getting one gun a month from distributors, allowing gun owners who want to dispose of a firearm collection only transfer one-gun-a-month to a dealer, and even fails to make certain exception for armed forces.  Evan says the law is so bad, it will virtually end retail handgun sales in New Jersey.  Maybe that was the point.

Story from Singapore.

I’ve seen this mistake made many times. Since most of you guys don’t follow me on Twitter, I thought I would hijack Sebastian’s blog while he’s driving to work to “re-Tweet” this reminder to a wider audience.

RT @APStylebook: Capitalize references to the U.S. Constitution with or without the U.S. modifier: The president said he supports the Constitution.

From NRA:

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six today concluded that the State of Kansas will now recognize ‘non-resident’ right-to-carry permits issued by any of the 22 states already recognized.

“NRA has maintained for years that language in the Kansas statute indicates that ‘non-resident’ right-to-carry permits should be recognized,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “This decision is a victory for gun owners as it expands right-to-carry laws and provides permit holders additional freedoms in Kansas to protect themselves and their families.”

I guess this helps make up for losing Nevada.

Remember that bill Wayne Pacelle was complaining NRA was opposing?  Well, it stalled in the house and is headed back to committee.  I think that’s a good outcome, because there are things in the bill that I don’t think we ought to have any trouble with, but some things really need to change.  I’m rather mystified that the following groups are joining forces with HSUS on this:

The Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs was joined in support of the bill by the Quality Deer Management Association, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Pheasants Forever, United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Ruffed Grouse, Pennsylvania Forest Coalition, Pennsylvania Crossbow Association and the Pennsylvania Deer Association.

Support also came from P.E.T.A. and the Humane Society, both anti-hunting groups.

Considerable fuss was made when the National Rifle Association questioned the bill, even though the NRA supported the concept. It became almost a frenzy as people and groups joined in condemning the N.R.A. over their mere concern.

There’s just no way that poaching should be in the same league as robbing a bank.  Sorry, no.  It’s a misdemeanor at most.  The District Attorney’s association and the gun rights groups in this state were right to raise concerns.  If Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, which I am a member of, is going to keep joining forces with Wayne Pacelle and PETA, I will not renew my membership with them and will cease supporting the organization.  I fear they are already suffering for Melody Zullinger’s absence.

Red State has a list of Democrats who are vulnerable because of their vote on Cap & Trade.  My Congressman is one of them.  Let’s hope the Republicans run a serious candidate against him in 2010.  This isn’t an opportunity to squander.

The Arizona Rifleman is offering to tumble brass for the cost of shipping.  I could keep his tumbler busy for a while with what I’ve collected.  I will make a similar offer, except I get to keep the brass when I’m done :)

Looks like a number of Pennsylvania teams and shooters did quite well.

The City of Philadelphia is talking about digging up I95 from the Ben Franklin Bridge down to the airport… and replacing it with?  Nothing:

“The question we should be asking right now is: Do we rebuild I-95 as is, or do we rethink the whole thing?” said Harris Steinberg, who runs the nonprofit consulting firm PennPraxis, which developed a waterfront policy for the city in 2007. The Obama administration’s interest in urban areas, he said, “has given the city a license to do something bold.”

Actually, what Hack and Steinberg envision is less a Big Dig than a No Dig.

Instead of burying the highway in an expensive tunnel, they would entirely rip out a stretch of I-95 that runs south of the Ben Franklin Bridge and I-676. Traffic volume drops off there, proponents argue, because the bulk of the highway’s users are commuting into Center City from the north. Airport travelers, they point out, can take I-676 to I-76.

I think we probably ought to take all these “Urban Planners” and launch them into the sun.  And once you have this delightful waterfront, what then?   The Rainbow Farting Unicorns are going prance along and suddenly Philadelphia will renew itself?   No.  It won’t.  It’s a crappy place to live, and a crappy place to do business or spend money.  Fixing that is easier, and will do a lot more to revitalize the city than any crazy notion that if we just jackhammer enough highway, and inconvenience enough people, prosperity will return.   If I were paying taxes to that city, I’d be furious they are wasting time and money on this nonsense.  The Underpants Gnomes would be proud.

UPDATE: Here’s the section of highway they are talking about digging up.  I wonder how UPS, the City’s 12th largest employer, who’s east coast hub is Philadelphia International Airport, will think about this.  Oh, but who cares about working class stiffs with jobs when yuppees want a better view of the waterfront.

Bob Barr cuts through the rhetoric about Lautenberg’s civil rights destroying bill that would deny folks on the terror watch list their Second Amendment rights.  I’m glad he’s using his MSM soap box to get the truth out there.  I suspect even Americans who aren’t gun people would be more than a little disturbed about the idea of the government limiting constitutional rights based on secret lists.

An Ohio man decides he’s had enough of high taxes on Tobacco.  So he’s growing his own.  No doubt anti-smoking activists will work furiously to close this “loophole.”

From Billll in the comments:

I view her like the VC in the rice paddy at the end of the runway. We knew he was there, and we knew he was shooting at our planes as they took off, but since he had never hit one, we left him there as his replacement might prove to be a better shot.

Now Mitch McConnell is saying that they need more time before the vote, since they just dug up a whole bunch of new information on Sotomayor.  I think NRA’s caution about what position to take on Sotomayor is prudent, considering we don’t know what else is going to come out.

Jennifer reports that the Obama Infomercial on ABC was “Like Porn Without The Viewers.” Because apparently no one watched.

This kind of thing is very serious.  What will the British do?  It’s pretty clear Obama is not willing to stand up to these cretins who run Iran, and will readily abandon close allies in order to make a deal with the regime.  What Europe is witnessing is a taste of what is to come if the United States withdraws from the world stage.

Europe is on its own.  I hate that it’s that way, but hey, hope and change has come.

The Defensive Handgun blog takes down a notion floated by the CSGV that we could disarm everyone by drafting all American citizens into a new, federal militia.  I think the supremely ironic thing about this proposal is that it is exactly what the anti-federalist were afraid of — that if the national government had plenary power over the militia, they could use that power to disarm the militia.  The federalists, namely James Madison, chose to deal with this concern by recognizing, through the Second Amendment, that the people had the right to keep and bear arms.  I think it’s amusing that the gun banners just came up with a scheme that was the reason the Second Amendment exists in the first place.

Mr. Completely has a pretty good slate up for this fall.  Between Alan Gura, Mark Knapp, NSSF, and the two guns, wait no, three guns.  Whether I make it out will depend entirely on the job situation, and even now it’s still a bit early to tell.  But it’s shaping up to be the best GBR out of the four, so I hope we’ll get a lot of folks out there to Reno.

This time DiNatale, the developer who has been trying to gt Blue Trail shut down for a while now, is using the lead issue to try to get his way:

Tests commissioned by a Durham man who is suing the Blue Trail firing range in Wallingford show high concentrations of lead from bullets on land near the Ulbrich Reservoir opposite the range, and elevated levels in the sediment at the water’s edge.

Blue Trail and the town will be allowed to do their own tests.  Generally speaking, elemental lead is fairly imobile in soil, and not all that hazardous.  But it some soils, the lead can become more mobile.  This is going to continue to be an issue for commercial ranges, clubs, and public ranges as time wears on.

From Tam:

We here at Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, LLP would like to apologize for the error that occurred in our mailroom. It seems that a package intended for one “M. Jackson” was delivered to a “D. Carradine” by mistake. We sincerely hope that this hasn’t caused a loss of confidence in the normally excellent service provided by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, LLP, and we look forward to your continued patronage in the future.

Thank you,
Mgmt.

I’m not one to mock the dead, but that made me practically spit up my iced tea.

I have obtained a smoker from Lowes.  I decided to go with a Brinkman charcoal smoker, mostly because it was cheap, and I didn’t want to invest a lot of money.  I have a habit of buying toys that I use a few times, and then just take up space.

Tonight we will be making Memphis style dry ribs, with a little Jack Daniels BBQ sauce that I have found a recipe for on the side, along with corn on the cob, and some cole slaw.  Bitter will post the recipe later on her food blog.

UPDATE: Could be heard emanating from my house today, “How the hell is it that you have to be shown how to get charcoal going by a damned Yankee?”  Considering this, and the fact that she doesn’t like Carolina BBQ, we might have to revoke Bitter’s southern credentials.   But then again, on her mother’s side, she does have the Davis family.  Yes, that Davis family.  So I guess that trumps not knowing how to light charcoal :)

UPDATE: Ate the ribs.  While I could identify the ribs as BBQ — as they had a nice smoke ring, had a delightful smokey flavor, and fell off the bones fairly well — the rub was problematic.   The rub was heavy in brown sugar, which rather than form a nice, caramelized crust on the outside, formed tough, charred exterior, which did not taste all that good.  Ribs don’t have enough meat on them to sacrifice the exterior layer.

I used hardwood lump charcoal to power the BBQ, and while think this good for providing flavor, it also burns through very quickly, and does not burn all that consistently.  I had a hard time maintaining temperature in the ideal range.  It’d get too cool, I’d add more coals, and it would get too hot.  I think I probably got the temperature a bit too much on the hot side for too long.  I’m thinking that f0r smoking, Kingsford might actually be the best, since the smoke is provided more by the wood chips than the by coals.  If I were to try again, I’d reduce the amount of sugar in the rub, and use a more consistent burning charcoal.

Entries are due on Monday for Flying Aces, the E-Postal match for this month.  Don’t forget to send me your results, along with a scan or photo of your target.  I hope I can get more entries before shooting closes on Monday at midnight.

Over at Townhall:

A heated debate has started in the U.S. Senate over her opposition to the right to keep and bear arms. This issue, which has decided the fate of presidential elections, could also decide her nomination. Gun owners, and especially the members of the National Rifle Association, must aggressively oppose Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

We have to see what kind of opposition to her can be generated, and I think also get an idea as to whether we’ll have enough Democrats to block not only her, but to insist on a pro-Second Amendment nominee.  A lot will come out in the hearings.  Given that she’s against incorporation, and given that’s our immediate goal, she is definitely a problem.

I’m just skeptical Obama will put anyone on the court that will vote the way we want.  At best, I think he finds someone who hasn’t said much about the Second Amendment, says all the right things in the confirmation hearings, but still ultimately votes against us.