Month: May 2009

New York to Enact “Fat Tax”

In another story dealing with New York the nanny state…

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/05/14/new-york-bill-would-add-fat-tax-video-games-dvds-junk-food

It appears New York is trying to pass a law that would put a tax on anything that “makes kids fat.” In other words they are low on money and the way to make more money is to tax popular things like video games and DVDs.

Armed College Student Saves the Day

Here is a story showing a great example of why you should be armed…

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/19365762/detail.html

A couple of punks broke into a college student’s home. They separated the men and women then made a remark about having enough bullets. Well the student, Tom Jones (It ain’t unusual… yup that song will be stuck in my head all night), decided he had enough and pulled a gun out of a back back and let one of the assailants have a bullet.

He then moved to the room with the other thug, who was getting ready to rape Mr. Jones’s girlfriend, and let that punk have a round of justice as well. This punk managed to jump out a window and run, although not very far. Apparently even criminals can’t survive long when they’re leaking blood.

Unfortunately one female student was hit by crossfire but luckily is planned to make a full recovery. We should all congratulate Mr. Jones on defend his life and the lives of his friends.

Ruger is Cooking Something

Looks like Ruger is counting down to something new…

http://www.ruger.com/index.html

I know Tom Gresham made a remark on Gun Talk about Ruger reintroducing a folding stock option and 30 round magazines for their Mini 14 series. I haven’t a clue if that’s what this count down is for but I believe so.

Rumors floating around the web also say Ruger could be introducing an AR-15.

Senate Backs Carry in National Parks

Look what we have here…

http://www.NRAILA.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=12482

It looks like the senate is down with returning American Citizens’ their right to carry in national parks (so long as they can carry in the state the park is located in). The amendment, which was approved in a vote of 67 to 29, is attached to a bill regulating credit card companies. And further proof that gun rights is a bipartisan issue 27 of the votes for the amendment were from Democrats.

Bruce Schneier Against Cyber Security Tsar

The bastion of common sense security, Bruce Schneier, speaks his mind on the appointing of a cyber security Tsar…

http://threatpost.com/blogs/do-we-really-need-cybersecurity-czar

As the man himself puts it.

Really what I think is it shouldn’t be anybody. We do better without a top-down hierarchy. Our economic and political systems work best when there isn’t a dictator in charge, when there isn’t one organization in charge. My feeling is there shouldn’t be one organization in charge. Not only shouldn’t it be the NSA, it shouldn’t be anybody,

I find myself agreeing with him yet again. I don’t know where this idea of appointing so called “Tsars” came from since we aren’t a Russian Monarchy but it’s getting bloody annoying. Having a single person in charge of anything generally fails. That’s why we have the Senate and Congress (granted they don’t really do their jobs in my book). Our founding fathers saw first hand what having one buffoon in charge does so they set up a system with many buffoons in charge.

Having a single person in charge of anything, especially security, leaves a single point of failure in the system.

European Union Thinks U.S. Should Relinquish Control of the Internet

Yet more news of the European Union trying to screw everybody else…

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/european-union-wants-cut-internet

This time they want some control over the Internet. This is an oversimplification but right now there is an organization called ICANN which acts as a central authority for Internet. Since 1998 they have been working under mandate of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This agreement is up for termination in September of 2009.

The European Union things once this agreement is terminated they should get a piece of the action. Never mind the fact that the U.S. funded and developed most of the technology that makes the Internet your are using right now possible. Never mind that many of the U.S. laws are the reason the Internet has remained on open source of information anybody can use. Nope that doesn’t matter.

Being the Internet is an international entity now it might seem logical to have other countries help in its oversight. The problem I have with this is many European countries are, or soon will, filter content obtained online. China currently is hold the record as the most famous attempt to filter Internet access (which they are failing at since there is no way to filter so much data). But China has no influence over the regulating body known as ICANN so they can’t force filtering for other countries.

If another group such as the European Union gained power over ICANN they could conceivably set into motion a list of items that would no longer be permissible to place online. Remember much of the Eurozone isn’t too big into the whole freedom of speech idea. And the Internet would not be useful if it wasn’t for the freedom of speech. I could see the E.U. wanting to place a ban on all pro-gun sites out there. After all we know how much the E.U. loves the right to bear arms.

L.A. Gun Buy Back Screwed Somebody

Apparently L.A.’s recent gun buy back program was a rousing success.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_12343624?nclick_check=1

They named all sorts of evil guns that were roaming around the streets killing people. According to the story, who’s accuracy I question on the grounds that the gun they picture is NOT a Tommy Gun as they state, everything from a $10,000 Luger to grenade launchers were dropped off.

And what does your $10,000 Luger net you? Why a $100.00 Visa gift card. What a deal! I’m betting money that if such a gun was dropped off it was stolen property. Granted the police are saying they will check the serial numbers to see if the guns are stolen but I’m doubting anybody will a gun as old as a Luger registered the serial number.

European Union Wants Companies Liable for Software

You know I hate the idea of the European Union a little more every day…

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39649689,00.htm

They have another idea that should not be. They want to hold companies and, in the case of open source applications, programmers liable for defects in their code.

To somebody outside of the software industry this may sound like a good idea. Who hasn’t been bitten by a software bug and wanted to unleash their wrath upon the coders? But as a coder myself I can tell you this, programming is hard.

More specifically parts of programming are hard. Getting an application up and running and then getting it to do basic tasks is pretty simple. The problem comes when you want to make those basic tasks reliable.

The damnedest things can cause a bug in an application. Forgetting to terminate a string in a null character in C for instance can lead to worlds of hurt. Sometimes when your application calls on outside code that outside code will cause an unforeseen but in your own code. The bottom line is trying to foresee all possible bugs and mishaps is impossible. This desire of the European Union would create a liability for software companies in that part of the world and probably cause them to move elsewhere. Maybe somewhere that isn’t trying to make life as hard as possible for businesses.