Snowflakes in Hell

In Montana:

The Labor Department says recent job losses are behind an increase in the state’s unemployment rate.

Ya think?

Tam has a great essay assessing the damage.  I am no fan of the 17th myself, but tend to believe the pesky progressives were bound to create leviathan with or without it.  If we didn’t have the 17th amendment, I still believe we’d have a large and expensive federal government, but it would likely have been more difficult for the federal government to amass the power that it’s managed, and it probably wouldn’t have been able to amass so much of it.

The real problem is that our culture worships at the altar of democratic governance.  Power to the people, and all that.  Not enough stop and think that maybe the people, when they act collectively through voting, are actually pretty collectively stupid.

A good article that details the problems with excessive government and corruption in The Garden State.  Something we Pennsylvanians have to watch out for, as our state government continues to grow as well.

Hat tip to the geek.

SayUncle points out that Wyoming is telling the feds to go to hell in regards to a lot of their less-than-civil-rights-respecting laws.  Montana did a similar action with federal gun laws.  These are largely symbolic gestures, because despite all this, Montana and Wyoming are still committed to being a functioning part of the United States.

But what if they weren’t?  What if the federal government crossed the Rubicon of gun control?  We often like to think that the federal government will meet mass resistance should the “knock on the door” ever come, but they probably won’t.  Lone individual action will not be how an onerous federal gun measure will be successfully resisted.  No doubt some individuals will try, with the end result being those individuals end up dead, possibly along with their families.  I don’t think the answer to the “Crossed Rubicon” problem lies in relying on that possibility.  The knock won’t likely come from men in jack boots, disarming people to ship them off in cattle cars and toss them into ovens.  It’ll come from a happy, smiling government that wants to take care of everybody, and surely you don’t need guns in such a happy utopia.

Most non-sociopathic human beings have powerful mental programming that prevents them from going against the tribe.  It’s easy to say “I’ll shoot any son of a bitch that comes for my guns.” from the comfort of a lounge or living room.  It’s quite another thing to actually do it; to put a fellow countryman in the cross hairs, one that’s likely to represent a government that looks more like Sweden than 1930s Germany, and actually pull the trigger.  It is not something the vast majority of law abiding people are capable of doing.  I have no doubt some will, but the numbers will be very small, too small to make any difference in the end.  Such action will likely strengthen the resolve of those who want to bring us paradise.

Whether we realize it or not, Wyoming and Montana are showing us how it could be done, effectively done.  They key to resisting an unconstitutional federal government is state action, but something more than mere symbolic action.  What if, for instance, Montana declared that federal gun control was invalid and unconstitutional, and threatened to arrest any federal agent who entered Montana to enforce it?  How far would the federal government be willing to press Montana?  What are other Americans willing to sacrifice in order to impose gun control on states that don’t want it?  In this hypothetical scenario, Montana would have to be deadly serious about enforcing their edicts.  Attempts by the federal government to impose control over the situation would need to be met with quite real threats of secession, along with the attendant violence that could go along with such an audacious move. Montana would essentially be asking the nation a very serious question “Are you so intent on gun control that you’re willing to risk the cohesion and integrity of the United States, and to risk violence against the citizens of several of our states to enforce it?”  Unless Americans change greatly, the answer to that is probably going to be no, and it would offer a peaceful way for the federal government to retreat back across the Rubicon.

This scenario offers three very important things — It offers people, who want to resist, the legitimacy of a functioning, lawful government to rally around, as an alternative to dying in a desperate, lone action.  It offers a means of collective confrontation with the federal government that wouldn’t have to turn violent except as a final resort, and finally it offers an opportunity for the proponents of gun control to back down from the brink.

The question second amendment advocates need to be thinking about isn’t “Where’s the line in the sand where I start shooting.” but “Where’s my line in the sand where I start lobbying my state government to stand up to this crap?”  We have to keep the spirit of defiance alive in our state cultures.  Secession has a lot of negative connotations to many people, since the last time we did it, it was in defense of slavery, but its possibility a critical aspect in the balance of power between the federal and state governments.  It is the ultimate trump card, one that must be played with utmost care, but it must be kept in play.  That’s tough in an age where all the states suckle at the federal teat, but if we’re to remain under a federal government limited by the a constitution, more states have to start acting like Montana and Wyoming, and be willing to tell the federal government to go to hell, with all the terrible consequences that statement could have if they were to one day be serious about it.

A government which has the power to do unlimited good, has the power to do unlimited evil.  GeekWitha.45 tries to explain that to one of his acquaintances.  It’s a good read.

… there are folks that want to put these people in charge of our health care.

There’s a movement to increase the pay of federal judges, currently being lead by Justice Roberts.  I agree that we probably should be paying federal justices competitively.  Here’s why:

The cost of not [addressing the pay disparity] will be a decrease in the quality of an increasingly important judiciary — and a change in its perspective. Fifty years ago, about 65 percent of the federal judiciary came from the private sector — from the practicing bar — and 35 percent from the public sector. Today 60 percent come from government jobs, less than 40 percent from private practice. This tends to produce a judiciary that is not only more important than ever but also is more of an extension of the bureaucracy than a check on it.

Absent competitive pay, the only reason someone has to take a federal judgeship is to power and prestige associated with the position, or a lack of ability in the private sector.  That’s probably the type of person we don’t want sitting on the bench.

Apparently Always Think Forfeitures is one that someone at ATF wants to promote, as in Civil Asset Forfeiture, as in the government being able to take your property without due process.

Dave Hardy has some interesting commentary.

Over at Subguns.com, an accusation that politicians are registering machine guns and selling them to finance their campaigns.  The whole theory seems to hinge on this:

The Hughes Amendment had an interesting side effect. If you read Chapter 18, 922 (o) it is not a ban per say but demands Government approval for the manufacture and sale of a machine gun after May 19,1986, the date of enactment. There have been rumors floating around for years that certain politicians have been registering machineguns and selling them. 

922(o) is pretty short and sweet:

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.

(2) This subsection does not apply with respect to—

(A) a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the authority of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or a State, or a department, agency, or political subdivision thereof; or

(B) any lawful transfer or lawful possession of a machinegun that was lawfully possessed before the date this subsection takes effect.

But you can’t really just read 922(o), which is part of the United States Code, and represents an Act of Congress.  You also have to look at Code of Federal Regulations Title 27, particularly 479 Subpart G, which are all the regulations promulgated by ATF under its authority granted by Congress for the purpose of registration of machineguns.  There is no Congress Critter exception to the ban.  It has been completely unlawful to register a fully transferrable firearm since May 19, 1986.  If this is going on, it’s illegal, and people could go to jail.  Color me skeptical, though.

Interesting article.  Luckily, Pennsylvania has company, and we’re not even really the worst.  People are fleeing Michigan in droves.  Followed by New Jersey.  Pennsylvania is 42nd in terms of percentage of outbound moves.  California has lost the most in sheer numbers. Why?

“When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state,” Laffer and Moore note in their report. “Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole.”

People don’t like high taxes?  Who knew?

The Golden State also has tarnished itself among less-wealthy persons. Moore said migration trends based on moving company data show California had the second-highest domestic population outflow of any state in 2005 “despite the beautiful weather, beaches, and mountains.”

California budget officials are predicting another $14 billion deficit this year, although the state has some of the highest tax burdens in the nation. The state budget has ballooned from $79.8 billion in fiscal 2004-05 to $102.3 billion this fiscal year, a jump of 28 percent.

Makes you wonder if Californians were really better off voting for Arnold, who has ruled more like a Democrat than a Republican, than they would have been with Cruz Bustamante.  The California political establishment likes big government, and those that don’t are voting with their feet.

Pennsylvania is in trouble too.  We have a particularly difficult time keeping young people in this state, enough that it was a campaign issue for Rendell.  It’s amazing when I go to DC, the difference in demographics.  Bitter is one of the older persons in her workplace, and she’s seven years younger than me.  At 34, I’m one of the youngest here at mine, and it’s been the same story at every workplace since I left college.  People my age got their degrees and went elsewhere.  Same with my shooting club.  You don’t see too many guys there under 50, let alone 40.  I worry that young people aren’t taking to the traditional shooting sports, but then I think “Maybe the reason you notice this is because there just aren’t any young people left in your state?”  If that’s the case, we’re in a lot of trouble.  I suspect with Pennsylvania, it’s mostly a lack of opportunity driving young people away.  Why are there few opportunities here?  Because Pennsylvania has among the highest corporate taxes in the country, and it’s a horrible drain on businesses.

DirtCrashr on California politics commenting at SayUncle:

Here in CA we are all minorities in a One Party State made-over by Identity Politics and gerrymandered into perpetual servitude to a political class that chooses its voters, rather than the other way around.  The square peg went into the round hole and the Governator came out a Democrat on the other side.

Sad, isn’t it?

I don’t have an account on The High Road, so I have no way to respond to this other than here.  It’s very important to make a distinction between asking for a document, and making a legal inquiry.  The office that handles FOIA requests can handle one type of request, but not the others.  All that needs to be asked is this:

Pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I request access to and copies of all documents relating to the FFL Holder: Joshua Alan Sugarman 1730 Rhode Island Avenue NW #1014 Washington DC 20036 License Number: 1-54-XXX-XX-XX-00725.

That should be all you need.  Anything else:

Justification of how a 501c(3) non-profit corporation can obtain a type 1 FFL when the intent of having a type 1 FFL is to: devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms.

This is a legal question, not a request for documents the government has, which is what FOIA governs. It’s important to stick to that, and remember that a FOIA request isn’t The Inquisition.  The less complicated you make things for the bureaucrats who handle this stuff, the more likely the request will be successful.

Apparently the IRS is being taken to court because of how it treats Scientology:

There has been a case working its way up through the federal courts challenging this special treatment that Scientology gets. (Why? Probably because Scientology is the religion of Hollywood, and this special treatment decision was reached during the Clinton Administration.)

In this case, a couple named Sklar are arguing that Scientology is allowed to do this, then should be allowed to treat Jewish school tuition the same way. If the courts actually treat the Sklars’ case the same way as Scientology, then they will effectively create a religious school tuition tax deduction.

I agree with Clayton that this exception should just be eliminated.  I believe this is something Bush could do through executive order, if I’m not mistaken.

Looks like trouble is afoot between Georgia and Tennessee.  There was, once upon a time, the same kind of problem between Virginia and Pennsylvania over who owned parts of what are now Western Pennsylvania (take that Virginia!  We won! ).

Read this, and be amused.  I was.

9:05 - Blah blah blah. Lots of greeting. On HDTV you get to see exactly how old some of our elected leaders really are.

9:07 - Obama and Kennedy are sitting with each other. I guess they are best buddies now. Just don’t let Ted drive home.

9:11 - Off the bat with a message of unity. Democrats and Republicans working together. I prefer when they bicker personally.

9:12 - Now it’s the economy, stupid. Bush is touting the agreement reached on the stimulus plan which will accomplish exactly nothing in terms of helping the economy.

9:14 - Lower taxes, I like lower taxes.

9:16 - Bush talks a tough talk on spending and earmarks. If he had done that two years ago maybe Republicans would still have their majority.

9:19 - Bush wants to make private health coverage deductible. I think this is a good idea to put private coverage on par with employer group coverage. The Democrats don’t seem to stand up and applause for choice and freedom from government control of health care. Kind of tells you how they think doesn’t it?

9:20 - Blah blah blah…. Education. What ever happened to abolishing the Department of Education, back when Republicans were cool? Last I checked my copy of the constitution, it doesn’t grant power to Congress to regulate education.

9:23 - We do need to pass free trade agreements. That should get more applause than it did. I worry free trade is going out of style.

9:25 - Apparently Bush’s copy of the constitution has something about the federal government being responsible for people’s jobs in it. I must have a copy that’s missing some things.

9:26 - Energy policy is probably the biggest snake oil selling going on these days. Clean coal and nuclear are at least real energy sources. Notably absent is ethanol and hydrogen. Good.

9:28 - I should note that I was never a fan of the Republican stem cell research provision, but I think it’s odd that the Democrats didn’t stand and applause for advancement of research that makes adult stem cells possible to use. Seems to me that’s a good thing no matter what you think about the issue.

9:30 - Confirm judges. I agree.

9:32 - Now it’s time for entitlements and immigration. I agree with Bush on entitlements. Bush touts his guest worker program again, which I support, provided we don’t offer amnesty for people who are already here unlawfully. Bush implied he was still on board with amnesty. This is a political mistake.

9:35 - Now it’s time for talking about terrorist killing. It doesn’t seem to get the applause it used to, sadly.

9:39 - Onto Iraq. The Surge. Our soldiers are doing great work. Yay! The surge is working. Democrats silent. Republicans applause.

9:45 - When it comes to supporting soldiers, Democrats seem to applause vigorously. When it comes to specifics on supporting their mission, silence.

9:47 - Everyone likes troops coming home. Democrats don’t like having basing withdraw on the recommendations of commanders and progress on the mission.

9:51 - Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace. I’ll believe it when I see it.

9:53 - Bush send a warning to Iran. I’d prefer to send missiles, but this is why I’m not president.

9:55 - The Democrats don’t like warrantless surveillance. I don’t either.

9:57 - America apparently is number one in fighting famine, which is why we are busy driving food prices through the roof by turning food into motor fuel. The best anti-hunger initiative the US could undertake would be to end agricultural subsidies and stop using corn ethanol for fuel. But you won’t hear anyone suggest that.

10:01 - Lots of flowery language about “We the People”, and The Union being strong. Bush is actually pretty good on his delivery tonight.

All in all, a pretty boring and uneventful state of the union. Looks like I picked the wrong week to not drunk blog this, it would have made it a lot less dry.

UPDATE: E-gads!  Sibelius is awful.  If she’s a “rising star,” as the Fox pundits said, maybe I should be more optimistic about the future of the Republican Party.  She sounds and looks like she’s been lobotomized.

Ahab is confused as to why Liberty Dollars are illegal. At first I thought this was another case of the federal government acting outside its authority, but after more research I’m not sure. While I will still say that they should find better use of resources than picking on Liberty Dollars, the Liberty Dollar does appear to be in violation of federal law. The article mentions:

The U.S. Mint recently issued a statement saying “prosecutors with the Department of Justice have determined that the use of these gold and silver NORFED ‘Liberty Dollar’ medallions as circulating money is a federal crime.”

“Consumers who are considering the purchase or use of these items should be aware that they are not genuine United States Mint bullion coins and they are not legal tender.”

That would imply they are being charged under Title 18, Chapter 25 of the United States Code, titled “Counterfeiting and Forgery”. They certainly aren’t guilty of counterfeiting, but my guess is that they are probably being charged under this:

Section 486. Uttering coins of gold, silver or other metal

Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

It says the coins were of gold and silver, so I’m guessing these guys are nailed. The power to mint currency is one reserved to Congress, so you can’t really argue that it’s outside the federal government’s purview.

UPDATE: Just noticed there’s more about this over at Reason. It seems to me that the argument that because you had to use federal reserve notes to pay for your liberty dollars, that they were fraudulent, seems off base to me. I have to use federal reserve notes to buy video game tokens, poker chips, or various other substitutes for currencies. Are these fraud as well? I will read through the affidavit. But it seems to me the only thing they could be guilty of, based on the limited information I have, is utterance of silver or gold coin.

UPDATE: After reading through the affidavit, I agree there is evidence of fraud.  It seems they were allegedly making claims that their currencies were backed 100% by silver, when that was not, in fact, the case.  There is also accusations of fraudulent marketing practices and such.

It seems there might be some problems here:

Because as Sullivan prepares to decamp for DC, taking with him his carefully cultivated reputation for relentlessly cracking down on street crime, he leaves in his wake a basket case of a U.S. Attorney’s Office. Judges are complaining of sloppy briefs and missed deadlines in Sullivan’s shop. Cases are taking longer to resolve than in any other state in the country. And bungling management and sometimes shocking instances of patronage have sunk morale. An estimated dozen assistant U.S. attorneys—the career professionals who do the important legal work—left the office during a recent 12-month stretch.

Given that track record, it’s fitting that Sullivan feels such warmth for Alberto Gonzales, his old boss at the ATF and U.S. Attorney’s Office, whose going-away party he marked with this dewy-eyed toast: “When I think of the attorney general, three words come to mind: discipline, duty, and honor.”

When I think of Alberto Gonzoles, I have a different image:

Hat tip to Red’s Trading Post for the story.

John J. Kelly III, Middletown Township Supervisor, managed to send out a flyer this week that convinced me to vote for the guy. You see, John Kelly is apparently under the delusion that he lives in Utah:

I think a bar/restaurant there is a fine idea! I firmly believe that a person ought to have the freedom to start a small business without some local political worm telling them “Sorry, but I think there are too many bars in Middletown Township!” because he gets off on power.

And what’s with the Chuck E. Cheese reference? Last I checked, Chuck E. Cheese sold beer and had a liquor license. Don’t give me crap about protecting children. I’m not worried about the presence of a bar corrupting kids, but I’m very concerned about a citizen’s ability to start a small business.

Great job Middletown Township Republicans, you just convince me to vote for Democrats!

UPDATE: Breda thinks if these worms think a pub next to Chuck E. Cheese is a problem, Ireland would make their heads explode.

Apparently the TSA has caught several other potential shoe bombers, and various other potential terrorists, and just let them go.  And these are the boobs the Brady’s want me to rely on for my personal security?  No thanks.

Via Eric, who has more to say about it.

I’m sure someone will say that more laws needed.

Hmmm….

Maybe the problem is the proliferation of shoes. Especially the high-capacity thick-souled variety….

Worrying about the bombs instead of the bombers?  Where have we heard that one before?

After a bit of research and consideration, I’ve decided that I am opposed to ratification of the LOST treaty.  Tyler Cowen has a good post about why it doesn’t make sense economically, along with links to other critiques.  Tyler also brings up the argument that’s had me wavering on the issue:

The real issue these days is stopping the Russians from claiming most of the Arctic, at least the sea lanes, and this is why the Bush administration now supports the treaty.  We’ll then have international support, or at least the pretext of such support, for telling the Russians they can’t colonize the Arctic.  That’s it, that’s the whole real reason for supporting the treaty and jumping into bed with the UN.  But hey, I can sympathize with stopping the Russians.

But I think I agree with Tyler that stopping the Russians isn’t worth signing on to a UN boondoggle.  There have to be better ways to deal with the Russians.

Robb Allen finds out that Motor Voter can be used by illegal or non-citizen immigrants to register to vote, because immigration records are seldom checked. 8 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were registered to vote.

One thing that separates me from most progressives is that I do not worship at the altar of Democracy. I don’t find low participation rates in elections as a sign our Republic is about to crumble, nor do I believe in encouraging people to vote.

I do believe in encouraging people to pay attention and get educated about what’s going on our country, but I’d prefer people who can’t even be bothered enough to get a voter registration, fill it out, and send it in, not be voting in our elections at all. If you don’t care enough to spend the time to register to vote, you don’t care enough to educate yourself on the issues, get involved, or do much else other than ignorantly pulling a lever. Somehow progressives tend to believe that more participation is a good thing. I do not agree. I think we’re a much healthier public with a smaller pool of informed voters than we are if we just encourage everyone to ignorantly pull a lever for one fool or another.

This post from Clayton got me thinking about something I wrote last year when I was still writing on Live Journal for an audience of about 25 people.

When evaluating current events, a good knowledge of history is essential for being able to place those events in context and understand them. It makes sense why even very educated leftists often overlook history, or seldom appeal to it; leftism is a forward looking philosophy that desires to achieve the perfection of man.

The history of man is replete with evidence that he is not perfectible. Human history is really nothing but horror and brutality, followed by periods of civilization, which also contain horror and brutality, just on a lesser scale, and accompanied by wonderful achievements.

I am not a religious man, but I do think, as a philosophical construct, the Judeo-Christian notion that man is fallen from God is a worthwhile one. An agnostic would say that man is just a primate species that has language and thumbs, and otherwise isn’t all that different from most other hominids. Can we really expect perfection of a bunch of damned dirty apes with big brains?

I don’t believe in the perfectibility of man, but I do believe man can and should better himself, which is what our civilization, based on the values of The Enlightenment, is about. The radical elements of Islam wish to take us back to a pre-enlightenment age, essentially destroying our current civilization. Many people on the right and center right wonder how those of the radical anti-war left can be so dismissive of radical Islam as a threat, since it stands against everything the left claims to hold dear. But I think their desire to perfect man, rather than accept him as fallen, offers an explanation. While those of the left are products of our civilization, they despise its lack of perfection, and therefore have little issue with it being swept away and replaced.

I agree with John Adams that you need a moral society to have civilization, but you don’t need a religious society to achieve that. It is possible to achieve moral status without being religious. But you do need a population that buys into the moral constructs of your civilization. Where people like Clayton and I sometimes find disagreement is on what those moral constructs ought to be.

I think the moral constructs embodied in our Constitution, which I would note does not once mention God, and the other founding documents of our nation, which sometimes do, are our nation’s moral foundations. This was best summed up by James Madison in Federalist 51:

It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Madison was aware that what was to become the federal government was to rely primary on flawed human being for its just administration. Our founders harbored few notions about man’s perfectibility, and thankfully our system was well designed to be administered by flawed human beings.

As much as I disagree with some religious folks on a great many social issues, the greatest risk we face as a nation is from those who desire to put too much faith in men, not those who put too much faith in God.

… I think we’re screwed.  Michigan is definitely screwed.   Pennsylvania has long term problems too.   The Sun Belt is starting to look a lot more attractive isn’t it?