Month: March 2011

So Much for the Evils of Corporations

Although I run most Apple electronics at this point the company does a lot of things that really piss me off. It’s a dick move to restrict the distribution of applications for a product to a single source just so Apple can get a 30% cut. Requiring approval from Apple in order to sell an application through that sole source is also dickish. Apple’s war against Flash is idiotic (and this is coming from a man who hates Flash).

But it’s hard to get too mad at the company when they do things like this. Basically Apple is doing whatever they can to help out their employees in Japan including paying for hotel rooms and transportation for those who wish to risk the trek home. Apple also told employees they may leave the area or country and their job will still be waiting for them when they return.

I’m sure Apple isn’t the only company doing things like this but they’re the only one I have information on. It’s great to see an “evil greedy” corporation treating their employees so well. It’s a far different picture than ones painted by socialists, communists, and union supporters who claim corporations are evil and will always treat their employees as poorly as possible unless government intervenes.

ATF Reform Bill

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has a write up on H.R. 1093, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Reform Act of 2011. Sadly the bill doesn’t take the only correct measure that would ultimately fix most of the problems crated by the ATF as it doesn’t abolish the ATF. There are a couple nice clauses in this bill but none of them prevent the ATF from smuggling or allowing somebody else to smuggle guns into other countries and then claim the need for more funding to fight arms smuggling.

Most of the things the NRA listed on their site are very good I’ll admit. For instance is bars the ATF from establishing a long gun registry and from creating a centralized electronic index of gun owners. The bill would also require the ATF to establish clear guidelines for their investigations although I think that would be better done by an outside party.

Granting Government Privileges to Unions

It appears the state of Illinois has determined people who are members of a union are somehow safer with firearms. As Thirdpower at Days of our Trailers points out there is an exemption in the Illinois carry bill allowing union workers to ignore ‘No Guns’ signs.

This seems like an odd exemption. There really exists no justifiable reason why union works could gain an exemption while non-union workers can’t. I guess union works are just better then the rest of us.

Wind Power in Minnesota

The greenies love to talk about how great wind power is and then proclaim that every state should start building wind turbines. Because the states of Minnesota is composed largely of suckers there have been several locations where wind turbines have been built. As the state likes to show off accomplishments to make an argument for their existence they put up a website that provides a live feed of the output of various wind turbines.

The problem is this website gives live feeds and most of the time the turbines site at producing 0kW. As I write this the only two places where the turbines are producing remotely usable power output are Olivia (~90kW) and Winthrop (~70kW). Most other areas are reading 0kW or less than 10kW. For the cost of constructing these behemoths it’s not work it. I’d say we could build a couple of nuclear reactors but that’s not kosher anymore due to the third nuclear incident in the 60+ years we’ve been using nuclear power.

Here’s the problem, wind power only works if there is wind. Minnesota isn’t known for extremely high winds so we’re not the best place to build these things. Maybe on a coastline it would make sense and there is generally higher winds but in Minnesota these things are mostly an expensive mistake.

If You Don’t Like the Law Just Reinterpret It

Oh look yet another instance of a government department not liking the power granted to it and thus have reinterpreted a law to give themselves more power:

The letter says federal officials have reinterpreted the civil-rights laws that require school principals to curb physical bullying, as well as racist and sexist speech, that take place within school boundaries. Under the new interpretation, principals and their schools are legally liable if they fail to curb “harassment” of students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or in private conversation among a few youths.

Now civil action can be taken against school principals if they fail to stop physical attacks and monitor the actions of every student even when they’re not at school:

Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.

Freedom of speech has been dead in public schools since… well since I was going to one. Will the Education Department soon require two way viewers in every home to monitor students just in case they’re “bullying” somebody online?

Not only do rulings like this destroy the concept of free speech but they also cause students to depend on outside help for everything. If somebody is bullying a student that student should have the right to fight back. Instead they are told to basically shut up and take it and after they’ve gotten their ass kicked they’re suppose to go talk to somebody in “authority.” Strangely enough the school is a government entity and acts as such because when a student reports a bully nothing is likely to happen. OK maybe the bully will get detention for a couple of days but they certainly aren’t going to learn a lesson.

Now that I’m thinking about it public schools works very much like the rest of our society. We’re told to depend on the state for protection and the state fails to offer protection. If somebody does something wrong they’re isolated for others for a short period of time with no other form of punishment. Should one of us defend ourselves we potentially get into trouble. Fuck, now I see where the victim mentality comes from in our society.

Here’s the thing if you’re a student at a school and somebody wants to beat the shit out of you fight back. Self-defense is a natural right afforded all human beings. If the bully is larger balance out the disparity of force with a good old threat-based weapon (for instance smashing somebody in the fact with a text book does some good damage). Nobody needs to submit to the violence of another regardless of what is taught in schools.

I’ll also say if you are cause true psychological trauma by things posted about you online man the fuck up. Words are words and can only cause the amount of harm you allow them. When somebody says something hurtful to you then it’s time for a witty comeback. I usually challenge a person’s cognitive capabilities myself and try to do so using old English but there are many means of doing this. Either way words can’t hurt you. If somebody is spreading lies or slander about you then it’s time to look into civil action. But asking the school officials for help isn’t going to accomplish anything because they’re in the interesting position of being unable to discipline unruly children while being tasked with disciplining unruly children.

On the “Assault Weapon” Ban of Yore

In a conversation I had elsewhere on the web the topic of the 1994 “assault weapon” ban came up. The accusation made by the person whom I’ll simply refer to as Mr. Dipshit stated:

Of course, the “assault weapons ban” was anything but; it was actually just a subsidy to the American gun industry. Several American weapons which were nearly identical to foreign ones were not classified as assault weapons, while the foreign equivalents were.

I’m bringing this up because I’ve heard this before and for the life of me can’t figured out where this bullshit originated from. The 1994 “assault weapon” ban was not a subsidy to the American gun industry. How can I say that? Because the 1994 “assault weapon” ban had nothing to do with importation of foreign weapons… at all.

If you read the text of the bill [PDF] that established the “assault weapon” ban you’ll notice it first establishes a list of firearms that are outright banned:

`(i) Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models);
`(ii) Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil;
`(iii) Beretta Ar70 (SC-70);
`(iv) Colt AR-15;
`(v) Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, and FNC;
`(vi) SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9, and M-12;
`(vii) Steyr AUG;
`(viii) INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22; and
`(ix) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12;

I’ve emphasized a rifle on that list, the AR-15. Why? Because it was a popular rifle produced in America. After listing these firearms specifically criteria was given to establish what qualifies as an “assault weapon” (as the term is made up they had to create rules for it):

`(B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of–
`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
`(iii) a bayonet mount;
`(iv) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; and
`(v) a grenade launcher;

`(C) a semiautomatic pistol that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of–
`(i) an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip;
`(ii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer;
`(iii) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand without being burned;
`(iv) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; and
`(v) a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm; and

`(D) a semiautomatic shotgun that has at least 2 of–
`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
`(iii) a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds; and
`(iv) an ability to accept a detachable magazine.’.

None of these listed features were in any way specific to foreign firearms. Likewise many of these features were common to popular American manufactured firearms. Hell this law banned the production of M-14 pattern rifles because they had a flash suppressor and a bayonet lug (the ban was avoided by taking the bayonet lug off).

If there is an argument of a gun control law that established a subsidy to the American gun industry it would be the Gun Control Act of 1968 [PDF] (the last starts on page 4 of the linked document) which established import restrictions:

(4) The Attorney General shall permit the conditional importation of a firearm by a licensed importer or licensed manufacturer, for examination and test- ing to determine whether or not the un- conditional importation of such firearm would violate this subsection.

This granted the Attorney General authority to determine what can and can’t be imported into this country. There are also various parts of the legislation that talk about the concept of “sporting purpose.” The Gun Control Act of 1968 is the law that established restrictions on what can and can’t be brought into this country. If you want to whine about a government subsidy to the American gun industry this is the bill you need to bitch about. Likewise if you want to remove this government subsidy please talk to me as I’d love to help you out by getting the entire law abolished.

The bottom line is if you’re going to bitch about firearm laws then you better fucking know them. Actually this goes for both side because if you’re pro-gun and referencing the wrong, or worse non-existent, laws you’re not helping us. Research before you go on a rant about something because if you don’t do your research nobody is going to listen to you as you’ll be spouting bullshit. Nobody likes bullshit except for dung beetles.

United States Inflation Rate Increases

Anybody familiar with economics (real Austrian economics not that idiotic idea put for by Keynesian) will tell you printing money leads to inflation. Surprisingly many people don’t realize that the United States is no longer using a commodity backed money and instead gave authorization to a private entity (the Federal Reserve is a private entity, not a government entity as the name would imply) to print our money. During this economic downfall the Federal Reserve has been printing up a shit ton of money and not surprisingly it’s leading to an increased rate in inflation.

The inflation rate in the United States has rose 0.5% in February alone. 0.5% may not seem like a lot but it is when you realize this was in one month. The rate of inflation effects the price of all consumer goods. Some consumer goods have rising faster including food and fuel:

Food price inflation was a key driver of the increase. Food costs went up by 0.6% month-on-month, the most in two-and-a-half years.

Petrol prices rose even faster, up 4.7%. But apart from those two categories, price rises were more muted.

Fiat currencies are a bad idea and this demonstrates why. There is no control over how much fiat currency can be pumped into a system and the more that gets pumped in the more inflation occurs. Commodity based money on the other hand has a method of control, the commodity. There is good reason why Austrian economists promote reestablishing a gold standard; gold was a commodity chosen by the market to serve as money. Gold is fairly difficult to obtain so its value stays relatively stable (unless you’re buying it with constantly inflating fiat currency). Its also a self-regulating currency which restricts the spending of government (and regular people to) since any entity they borrow to can demand their debt be repaid immediately in gold. With this threat looming the government can only afford to borrow as much money as they have gold to back.

If you have any interest in commodity based money a great read on the subject is The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar by Murray Rothbard. I’d also recommend reading another title by Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money. These two reads (both freely available at the linked locations) do a marvelous job of explaining commodity based money and the reason its needed. The titles also talk about the history of monetary policy in the United States which is probably the best argument for the return to the gold standard there is.

Placing Carry Instructor Requirements into Minnesota Law

The Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (GOCRA) is pushing to establish the requirements of Minnesota carry instructors into Minnesota law. I’m not a carry instructor so I’m not 100% what is all involved but I do know the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety gets complete authority to determine what is required to become a carry instructor.

Like most government agencies granted authority by the legislator the commissioner can also change the rules on a whim without justification. The legislation GOCRA is proposing would place the current requirements for a carry instructor into law and further establishes a requirement for the Department of Safety to prove cause for revoking an instructor license.

I’m always a fan of taking the establishment of requirements from the hands of government departments and placing them into law (I’m even a bigger fan of completely abolishing such things but alas that won’t be an option here). That way no single person has ungodly authority and everybody can be somewhat assured changes won’t be established on a whim.

America, Fuck Yeah

I don’t think it’s possible for this company to stick the word “America” into their motto any more times and have it make grammatical sense:

Made In America By Americans That Appreciate America And The US Constitution!!!

That’s a whole lot of America right there… and exclamation points. But hey if you’re looking for remanufactured ammunition and you love America these may be the people for you to do business with.