Month: March 2011

Illegal Drone Usage

The United States government certainly has balls. Not only are they willing to violate the rights of American citizens but they’re also willing to violate the airspace of other nations:

The US has been sending unarmed drones over Mexico since February to gather intelligence on major drug cartels, the New York Times reports.

Yeah we’ll just fly some drones around Mexico since they probably can’t detect them or shoot them down. Now that I think about it we probably asked the Mexican government for permissions:

The missions had been kept secret because of Mexican legal restraints and sensitivities over sovereignty.

Or not. It’s OK though because now the Mexican government knows and they’re probably pissed as Hell…

US President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, formally agreed to continue the surveillance flights during talks in Washington on 3 March, which included a frank exchange of grievances, Mexican and US officials said.

Or not. Honestly if I were the ruler of a country and my neighbor started violating my airspace I’d be pissed regardless of the intentions. Hell if I had the capabilities I would track and shoot down the drones claiming they were foreign military assets violating my country’s airspace.

I guess we shouldn’t expect a government willing to violate the rights of its own citizens to respect the rights of other countries.

New Hampshire is Doing it Right

Wow New Hampshire seems to be on a role. The state’s motto is “Life Free or Die” and apparently they are taking that pretty seriously as of late. The New Hampshire house just passed three very interesting bills. The first is a bill that would turn New Hampshire into the fifth state to abolish the requirement of a permit to carry a firearm in the state.

The second bill passed is one that will prevent police from arresting people who are recording their actions. This has become a big problem in some states where it’s illegal to record the actions of law enforcement even if they are in public places where you or I couldn’t expect the same (it’s legal to record anybody whom lacks a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in most states).

The third bill I found interesting is the one that will allow jury’s to be notified and exercise their right to nullify. If put into law it would require the courts to inform juries of their right to nullify which is far different than many places where judges have actually arrested people trying to inform jury members of this right. Arguably this is the most important bill of the three (which is saying a lot as I’m saying this bill is more important than the right to carry one) as it would allow the citizens of New Hampshire to abolish laws they found unjust.

Reducing Oil Prices

Due to unrest in the Middle East the price of oil has skyrocketed as of late. Except much of the high oil prices aren’t due to unrest in the Middle East (which should be obvious by the fact we get most of our oil from Canada) but from government interference in the energy market. Although the entire article is a good read this part made me shake my head the most:

The SPR program is ridiculous: Oil companies invest in drilling oil wells. They pump the oil out of the ground. The federal government then uses tax dollars to purchase the oil and pump it into salt caverns 2,000–4,000 feet beneath the ground. If we want to use the oil, we will have to pump it out of the ground a second time. We pump oil out of the ground, pump it back into the ground, and then pump it out again. It would be more efficient to store the oil in its original underground formation and allow private oil companies to decide when to pump it out.

Only a government could come to the realization that pumping oil out of the ground only to put it back into the ground and pump it out again at a later date makes good sense. Of course this is all done at taxpayer expense to boot.

One Reason to Adopt H&K

Do you need a reason to adopt the overly expensive H und K pistol? I have a reason for you, if you don’t they will sue your sorry ass (in all fairness Walther is in on this as well but they’re not as much fun to ridicule):

Earlier this year the Dutch police announced the adoption of a new pistol, the Sig Sauer PPNL (Police Pistol Netherlands).

Heckler & Koch and Walther, who lost out on the contract, have announced their intention to take the government to court over the decision.

I wonder if H und K has superior German engineered lawyers.

Overreaction Never Makes Sense

Germany seems to have an innate desire to prove that they are willing to overreact illogically to any situation. Case in point Germany has shutdown seven of its nuclear power plants in lieu of the situation in Japan. Of course Germany isn’t taking one small detail into consideration; Japan’s reactor is having problems because it was built on the fault line and experienced a 9.0 magnitude (not sure if that’s local or manner magnitude as nobody every fucking says) earthquake.

My head spins with Germany’s reaction. What were they thinking? I’m betting it was something along the lines of, “Mien Fuhrer, Japan’s nuclear reactor is experiencing a meltdown and the only logical thing we can do is shutdown our perfectly function and undamaged plants!” Brilliant! I’m sure somebody is getting a raise for that decision.

The only reason Japan’s plant is looking at potential meltdown is due to the earthquake and tsunami causing extensive damage. Yes natural disasters happen but when it happens elsewhere it doesn’t man countries a third of the way around the globe should react as if that natural disaster had hit them.

Tell the Truth, Get Sued, Lose $60,000

Johnny Northside, like myself, is a blogger. Unlike myself Mr. Northside has been sued because he told the truth:

Though blogger John (Johnny Northside) Hoff told the truth when he linked ex-community leader Jerry Moore to a high-profile mortgage fraud, the scathing blog post that got Moore fired justifies $60,000 in damages, a Hennepin County jury decided Friday.

The jury awarded Moore $35,000 for lost wages and $25,000 for emotional distress. The civil verdict culminated a nearly two-year legal scuffle between John Hoff, whose blog, The Adventures of Johnny Northside, has 300 to 500 readers daily, and Moore, former director of the Jordan Area Community Council.

Moore was fired by the University of Minnesota in June 2009, the day after Hoff’s post.

Mr. Northside’s blog post that ended the job of Mr. Moore wasn’t libel or slander, it was factual. Yet a jury decided that telling the truth is a bad thing and thus found Mr. Northside in error, $60,000 worth of error. Not only that but $25,000 of that fine was for “emotional distress.” How does one calculate the value of emotional distress? Is there some kind of formula I’m unaware of or it the value just set all willy-nilly at the end of the court case?

Obviously Mr. Northside is appealing as this is certainly a bum result. Mr. Moore was an employee of the state since he worked at the University of Minnesota. As an employee of the state it is the right of every Minnesotan to have him terminated from our employ if he does something we find undesirable. My tax dollars shouldn’t be going to fund something whom is committing any form of fraud. Hopefully Mr. Northside wins his appeal and Mr. Moore ends up paying Mr. Northside $85,000 (repay the $60,000 and add another $25,000 for emotional distress).

Obama’s Gun Speech

After two years of being in office I think Obama and I finally found something we can agree on. In his little gun control speech is said the following:

“I’m willing to bet,” he says, “that responsible, law-abiding gun owners agree that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few – dangerous criminals and fugitives, for example – from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.”

As a responsible law-abiding gun owner I can agree on this, we need to keep government from getting their hands on a gun in the first place. I firmly believe that the only way to stop the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from smuggling more guns into Mexico is to bar them, and any other government agent, legal access to firearms.

Now that I think about it maybe that’s not what Mr. Obama meant.

The Housing Market Bubble

As it the case with every market the government attempts to turn into a constant boom with the housing market ended up being a complete bust. Case in point, look at the number of vacant homes in Minneapolis. That’s a ton of homes sitting empty and it’s only one city.

I remember when the housing market was in its boom phase and everybody claimed there was no way to lose money on a home. People made a business out of buying a home, sprucing it up, and selling it for a profit. The problem is this boom created a ton of home, more homes that the market demanded. Supply and demand is a very real phenomenon and when the supply exceeds demand the cost of that supply goes down. The more the supply exceeds the demand the more the price of that supply plummets.

It’s such a simple concept that I’m at a loss to understand how our government doesn’t understand it. By pushing banks to make more home loans and guaranteeing these loans even to people who’s ability to pay was unquestionable not there the government helped create this massive failure in the housing market. On the upside if you’re looking for a home you can pick one up cheap. Then again you could also wait for the price to go down even more as it’s going to continue doing for a while.

Because Bigger is Better

There is one universal rule, bigger is always better. Because of this Guncrafter Industries decided the Glock needed a .50 GI conversion kit. For those of you unaware the .50 GI is a .50 cartridge that was originally invented to bring .05 more inches to the 1911. Why? It’s fucking awesome that’s why!

Now you can turn your Glock into an impractical Desert Eagle wannabe for the low low price of $595.00. Oh and the cost of .50 GI which I’ve never seen before so I’m guessing is going to be equally expensive.