Month: April 2011

Something You Don’t See in Minnesota

What happens when you’re a criminal who just robbed an Apple Store? In Minnesota you probably will get away scot-free. In Chula Vista, California although the citizenry aren’t allowed to carry firearms private security guards are then thus robbing an Apple store is likely to get you shot:

Three people attempted to burglarize an Apple Store in Chula Vista Monday morning, leading to a shootout with a private security guard and a getaway car crash that left one of the burglars dead, police said.

This is yet another California thing that baffles me. The state is so dead set against firearms owned by the peasantry but allowing private security guards to have them while Minnesota is more than happy to give firearms to the peasants but reluctant to allow private security to carry them. The correct thing to do would be allow both to carry a means of self-defense but that sadly isn’t the case.

Using Obama’s Words Against Him

Remember when Obama was talking about the two wars Bush involved us in? If not he said, “The President does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Of course this was before he decided to drag our force over to Libya to bomb targets in support of rebeles we know nothing about.

Thankfully Rand Paul is calling Obama on this:

The Rand Paul resolution, co-sponsored by fellow Senate Tea Party Caucus member Mike Lee (R-Utah), says: “The President does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Senator Obama used precisely that language in a December 20, 2007 interview with the Boston Globe when he was campaigning for the presidency. President Obama neglected to mention any actual or imminent threat to the nation in his address to the American people on Libya March 18.

It should come as no surprise that various members in Congress aren’t happy with somebody calling out their leader on this. After all it was only bad to engage our forces in military action without Congressional approval when Bush did it. To this end Congress appears to be refusing to vote. According to Rand Paul:

Right now, my resolution has been basically taken off the table. For three days now, we’ve had no votes. And they’re not going to vote again today, maybe because I think they don’t want to vote on whether or not Congress should have this authority. They’re embarrassed that the President took them to war precisely with the same kind of reasoning that they’ve always criticized up here.

It is my belief that a majority of Congress is more than happy to let the President engage our forces without any overhead. This is a cowards move on their behalf as it is simply a way of avoiding blame when popular opinion moves against any of these engagements. Giving the President this kind of authority allows Congress to effectively say, “Don’t blame us we didn’t approve this engagement.” I also really like this quote by Rand:

There are some of us who have a respect for the Constitution who are worried about the precedent that is set by allowing a President to go to war with no debate, no discussion. He had time to go to the UN. He had time to go to the Arab League. He had the time to go just about everywhere in the world to ask for permission, except for down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Congress which the Constitution says he has to come here. And he went everywhere else but here.

Zing! So Obama went to everybody but Congress to get approval for this war? If nothing else I have to say I’m really liking the fact that Rand is willing to call the President on these types of things. For too long it seems members of Congress were unwilling to call the President on actions that shouldn’t have been taken or were embarrassing when taken.

Placing Blame at the Right People

I think the title of this story is rather interesting. The title is Brazil banks sued for Amazon deforestation. Obviously reading this has brought to light more evils committed by those terrible bankers who are slowly ruining our planet through their insatiable greed. Well that is until you actually read the story:

Brazil’s biggest bank – the state-run Banco do Brasil – is being sued for allegedly funding deforestation in the Amazon.

For those of you who have a lapse in reading comprehension the emphasis I’m trying to point out is the fact that one of the banks being sued is actually owned and run by the government of Brazil. Of course it’s unfair to blame the state when multiple banks are being sued and the other one is a privately held institution:

The smaller state-owned Banco da Amazonia is also being sued.

Unless it isn’t that is. So why am I bringing this story up? Because I’m sure there will be people spouting on about how the evil banks of Brazil are causing deforestation and that the only solution is for the Brazilian government to step in and reprimand these horrible banks. Those who actually read and understood the article though will realize that these banks are state property and thus the previously mentioned actions would require the Brazilian government to reprimand itself which creates an interesting conflict of interest.

Basically I’m trying to point out the fact that the blame shouldn’t be put on “evil bankers” in this case but on evil government.

Texas Campus Carry

I find Texas to be an interesting state when it comes to gun laws. On one hand the people of that state are pretty pro-gun but on the other hand they have some strange restrictions in their carry laws. Of these restrictions I find the prohibition against carrying on college campuses to be truly idiotic. Thankfully the Texas legislature seems to be well on their way to fixing it and the National Rifle Association (NRA) is asking Texans to call their state senators and urge them to pass the bill.

Obviously people in opposition to this bill will call these same senators and make claims on “blood in the streets” and claim firearms are too dangerous to have near “irresponsible college students.” Yes the anti-gunners main arguments have been the fact that colleges are a place for debate and any debate involving a person with a firearm will absolutely turn into a shooting war. As a libertarian who has many debates with socialists while I’m carrying a gun I would like to point out how fallacious this argument is.

The other point anti-gunners try to make is college campuses are sources of heavy binge drinking and having firearms near such an environment means shooting wars will develop. What the anti-gunners don’t realize is once somebody has a carry permit a firearm doesn’t magically manifest itself on the permit holder’s hip. Those of us who carry can take the gun off when we decide to do something that doesn’t mix well with weaponry. I know this because I have removed my firearm when I’ve gone to parties and gotten shit faced drunk.

I’m also going to point out the fact that Minnesota allows the carrying of firearms on college campuses (colleges can make restrictions against students and faculty carrying on their campus but no law exists preventing it thus anybody not involved with a college can carry on the campus without any worry or expulsion or being fired). Do you know how many shootings we’ve had on college campuses due to allowing people to legally carry firearms there? Zero. For you anti-gunners who don’t know how to count that means we’ve never had an incident.

This is usually when are anti-gunner will claim that it’s only a matter of time. Truth be told it’s only a matter of time before most scenarios eventually unfold. What I can tell you though is prohibition of having firearms on college campuses hasn’t prevented shootings on said campuses. All these prohibitions have done is effectively disarmed both the student body and faculty meaning any asshole with malicious intent can have his pick of defenseless victims. Although I realize no matter what I say or what evidence I prevent to those who are against removing prohibitions against people arming themselves the anti-gunner’s won’t change their rhetoric. Anti-gunners are irrationally scared of firearms and like all irrational fears this fear has lead them to hold irrational beliefs.

Another Bad Idea by Obama

Obama is full of bad ideas and has a long history of broken promises (remember we were supposed to be out of Iraq and Gitmo was going to be closed by now?). I’m guessing these reasons are why his approval rating is so abysmal. Facing such a situation I’d avoid another run but Obama isn’t happy until he’s proven himself to be a complete moron who doesn’t have any comprehension of reality. This this end he’s announced his run for the next presidential race.

It’s it kind of early? I really don’t want to listen to presidential debates and ads from now until the elections in 2012. Oh well I’m sure the Republicans will put somebody equally stupid up and thus ensure no matter who wins we the people will lose for another four years. I know both political parties seems to be in a race to hit the bottom of the gene pool for their presidential candidates but in my eyes that’s not a race they should want to win.

Time For the ATF to Ban Staple Guns

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) went on a ban spree a while back because, according to them and nobody else, certain Airsoft rifles could be converted into real firearms. The ATF wrote up a report on this which coincided with their report on various unicorn sightings that their agents have observed over the years.

Well the ATF is going to shit bricks when they see this video explaining how to convert a regular staple gun into a 12 gauge shotgun. I’m kind of sad honestly, I use my stable gun a lot and there will be a void in my life when the ATF bans it for being easily converted into a destructive device.

Kids Say The Damnedest Things

This is why you don’t let your kids overhear things:

Police officers in Austin, Texas, say they were questioning a woman about some outstanding warrants when she began acting suspicious — eventually prompting her 3-year-old son to ask if they had “found his mom’s weed,” MyFoxAustin.com reports.

I have nothing snide to add, this story is funny enough already.

The Government’s Attempt at April Fool’s

Must like everything the government tries they fucked up their April Fool’s gag as well. The United States government tried to get people to believe unemployment is at a two year low of 8.8%. That’s a good one! Wait… they’re serious? Oh, I thought they were trying to be funny.

The sad fact is unemployment isn’t nearly that low once you don’t use the government’s rigged scale that attempts to make them look better.

Welcome to War

Wherever the CIA go civilian casualties are soon to follow. Not that I’m blaming the CIA for this fuck up but the agency seem like the fucking Grim Reaper with how reliable civilian death appears wherever they’re operating. It seems a coalition airstrike has managed to kill civilians in a recent raid:

Seven civilians died and 25 were hurt in a coalition air strike on a pro-Gaddafi convoy in eastern Libya, a doctor there has told the BBC.

Dr Suleiman Refardi said Wednesday’s raid happened in the village of Zawia el Argobe, 15km (9 miles) from Brega.

The strike hit a truck carrying ammunition, and the resulting explosion destroyed two nearby homes.

This isn’t going to shock anybody who knows anything about war. Although the fight it often between two factions the neutral people, the civilians, are often caught up in the fighting. Sadly we’re likely to only see more reports similar to this one which is one of the reasons war is such a horrible thing.

Oklahoma Fighting Back Against Bloomberg

New York King Mayor Bloomberg has been funding so-called “string” operations where he attempts to demonstrate how easy it is for criminals to purchase guns. Bloomberg’s agents find private sellers, claim they can’t pass a background check, and then try to purchase the firearm. The problem of course is the seller has committed a felony act but selling to somebody he or she can be reasonably sure is a felon. Thus the acts being performed are already illegal yet Bloomberg wants yet more laws on the books to make this more illegal.

Well Oklahoma appears to be sick of Bloomberg’s shit and are looking to pass legislation (it only awaits the governor’s signature) making such operations illegal. The bill is SB 856, the Fraudulent Firearms Purchase Prevention Act. It already passed both the House and Senate unanimously so it’s likely to get the required governor’s signature.

I think this paragraph sums up the problem with Bloomberg’s actions:

SB 856 would protect lawful firearm retailers from illegal gun sting operations such as those by Bloomberg who has sent hired agents into other states to attempt illegal firearm purchases in an effort to blame federally licensed firearm retailers for gun crime in New York City and around the country.

Bloomberg is trying to blame the violent crime problem of New York on everybody besides the criminals of New York. Although New York has draconian gun laws Bloomberg is claiming all the illegal guns (which due to New York laws is most guns) come from other states and therefore those states need to pass stronger gun control laws even though they don’t have any problem with crime. I guess we’re supposed to believe that Minnesota has a low violent crime rate because all of our guns are flowing to New York to fuel their violence. Somehow I doubt that’s the problem.