New Yorks’ War on the Poor Continues

First the city of New York banned donating food to the poor:

Outlawed are food donations to homeless shelters because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and fiber content, reports CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.

Glenn Richter arrived at a West Side synagogue on Monday to collect surplus bagels — fresh nutritious bagels — to donate to the poor. However, under a new edict from Bloomberg’s food police he can no longer donate the food to city homeless shelters.

Now a New York court has rule that a $340 fee to obtain a permit to carry is perfectly fine:

A New York judge says it’s Constitutional for the city to charge an application fee for a handgun permit.

Federal Judge John Koeltl (KOH’-tuhl) Monday rejected a lawsuit brought by guns rights advocates including the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and the Second Amendment Foundation. They sued last year, saying a $340 handgun license fee every three years is unconstitutional because it burdens a basic right.

The judge says there’s no evidence the fee has stopped anyone from exercising their rights. He says the city showed the fee helps cover administrative costs.

From the evidence I have at hand it appears as though New York wants all the poor people to go somewhere else. What does that city have against those with little means? Are they just not valuable because they can’t make major campaign contributions to Bloomberg’s reelection campaign? Do city officials think they’ll reduce crime by making life more miserable for the poor? After all somebody who doesn’t have the means to purchase food or legal permission to defend themselves obviously has the means to move out of the city right? It’s not like moving costs money or anything, you just rent a U-Haul… wait that’s not free.

Either way it’s becoming obvious that New York is becoming more hostile towards the downtrodden every day. I wonder when they’ll start rounding up people who make less than an arbitrarily selected amount of money every year and place them in designated ghettos.

Remington Threatening to Leave New York

Speaking of New York, Remington is now threatened to leave the state if the microstamping bill makes it’s way into law:

Top Remington Arms officials are threatening to pull out of New York if the state Legislature passes a bill mandating that guns carry tiny identifying stamps.

“Mandating firearms microstamping will restrict the ability of Remington to expand business in the Empire State,” wrote Stephen Jackson, Remington chief strategy and acquisition integration officer, to top state officials. “Worse yet, Remington could be forced to reconsider its commitment to the New York market altogether.”

Such a move could decimate Ilion, where Remington’s flagship plant employs more than 1,000 people.

Infringing on individuals’ rights should hurt, and mandating all guns include so-called microstamping technologies infringes on the rights of gun manufacturers to make a product of their choosing. Loosing 1,000 jobs would certainly cause some pain to the state of New York and make its barons look less desirable to the denizens.

Microstamping technology is a sham and a study performed at the University of California [PDF] demonstrates the absolutely insane amount of difficulty (and therefore expense) involved in implementing such technology. Remington would stand to inherit a great deal of expense and possible litigation if they were to stay in New York after the microstamping law passed. What litigation would they be subjected to you ask? I’m sure the boys in New York could find several conditions in which to sue firearm manufacturers for failures in microstamping technology including the construction of a firing pin that a purchasing can file the microstamping number off of, constructing a firearm that can has a replaceable firing pin, and constructing a firing pin that wears overtime making the imprinted microstamping harder to read.

Anti-gunners love the idea of microstamping technology not because it could assist law enforcement, but because it would make the cost of firearms skyrocket. If the price of an average handgun goes from $500.00 to $2,000.00 because the cost of developing and including microstamping technology has to be recouped the number of people able to afford firearms will drop significantly. Anti-gunners, like New York City, are waging a war against the poor.

Reallocating Misallocated Resources

One of my friends made a comment on Facebook regarding some pens being sold for $25.00 a piece. Why would a pen be worth $25.00? Because, according to the marketing material, the pens are designed for spinning. As you can guess, my friend believes this demonstrates the stupidity of high schoolers. I, not being normal, looked at the product and saw, not just stupid high schoolers, but also a brilliant entrepreneur who serves a great purpose.

What purpose could such an individual serve? The same purpose as the developer of I Am Rich, the now pulled iOS app that was priced at $999.99 and served no practical function, to reallocate misallocated resources. Most people would say that a person willing to buy a $25.00 pen developed for spinning doesn’t deserve that $25.00. Thankfully people like the pen designer exist to take that money and put it somewhere else.

The entrepreneur receives profit for his job of reallocating the misallocated resources and the remaining money goes to paying employees and to cover manufacturing costs. Instead of that $25.00 sitting in the pocket of a high schooler it is now sitting in the hands of many people involved in the manufacturing process of that pen. Capitalism is a beautiful system.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I Present the New President of the World Bank

The new president of the World Thieves Guild Bank was announced last week. Please put your hands together for Jim Young Kim (skip to 2:05 of the video for maximum hilarity):

I really hope he wears that outfit whenever he’s performing his presidential duties.

Bruce Schneier Removed from Invitee List for Congressional Hearing on the TSA

If this doesn’t reek of corruption and demonstrate how false democracy really is nothing will. Congress is holding a hearing on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) naked body scanners. At first they invited security expert, and major critic of the TSA, Bruce Schneier but later told him not to come:

On Friday, at the request of the TSA, I was removed from the witness list. The excuse was that I am involved in a lawsuit against the TSA, trying to get them to suspend their full-body scanner program. But it’s pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and especially of being challenged in front of Congress. They want to control the story, and it’s easier for them to do that if I’m not sitting next to them pointing out all the holes in their position. Unfortunately, the committee went along with them. (They tried to pull the same thing last year and it failedvideo at the 10:50 mark.)

The claim that he was removed for his involvment in an ongoing lawsuit is nothing more than a convenient excuse. In all likelihood he was removed because Congress doesn’t want to hear any criticisms on the body scanners as they’re very useful for our trip down the road to fascism. There is too much money involved in the body scanners for them to ever go away, in fact they only thing we’re likely to see is an expansion of their use at locations beyond airports. Let’s also not forget the fact that the body scanners are worthless.

You Might be a Terrorist

The New Jersey Department of Motherland Homeland Security has released a document that explains the signs of terrorism [PDF]. After reading this document I’ve come to realize that we all may be terrorists without even realizing it. Why? Because some of the signs of being a terrorist are:

Be alert to the indicators regarding actions, individual behaviors, personal interactions and social dynamics, vehicle characteristics and movements. Use your judgment in determining whether or not they are unusual or suspicious in your community or work environment. Be wary of people who depart quickly when seen or attempt to conceal something. Look for signs of nervousness in the people you come in contact with. Signs will become particularly evident in a person’s eyes, face, neck, and body movements. The following is a list of things to look for:

Eyes

  • Glances: directions, duration, timing
  • Wide open “flashbulb eyes”
  • Cold penetrating stare
  • Trance-like gaze

Face and Neck

  • Exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation
  • Protruding or beating neck arteries
  • Repetitive touching of face, tugging on or covering ears
  • Increased breathing rate, panting
  • Excessive fidgeting, clock watching, head turning

Body

  • Pacing or jumpy
  • Trembling
  • Unusual perspiration
  • Goose bumps
  • Rigid posture with minimal body movements and arms close to sides

Basically everybody who has ever shown signs of nervousness is a potential terrorist. Another way to detect a terrorist is to look for common equipment used by their kind:

Individuals may be observed:

  • Drawing or taking pictures in areas not normally of interest
  • Taking notes or annotating maps
  • Sitting in a parked vehicle

Some of the tools terrorists might use during surveillance include:

  • Cameras- video, still, or panoramic
  • Laptop computers or PDA’s (Personal Data Assistants)
  • Diagrams or maps
  • Binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices
  • GPS (Global Positioning System) devices

Not only is every person who has ever been nervous a potential terrorist but so is every tourist. Russia Today has a list of potential terrorists that you should be on the lookout for.

Just in case this document gets thrown down the memory hole I’ve uploaded a copy here.

An Inconvenient Truth

Les Jones has a post detailing a rather major lie told by MSNBC regarding the Zimmerman case:

Jake caught MSNBC Dowdifying the 911 call in the George Zimmerman/Martin Trayvon shooting. Here’s what MSNBC has George Zimmerman saying on the 911 call:

This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” Zimmerman told a police dispatcher from his car.

That sure makes Zimmerman sound racist, doesn’t it? But notice the ellipsis. Those three dots indicate that something’s been edited out. Here’s the full, un-Dowdified quote from the 911 recording:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

Dispatcher: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

And with the filling in of three little dots meant to indicate abbreviation holes are shot through the theory that Zimmerman was obsessed with race. If MSNBC lied about this what else may they have lied about? Why are they working so hard to make this case about racism? Why are they actively working against finding real justice? Is it because they don’t want a valid self-defense case coming out in positive light? Is it because they are racist against hispanics like Zimmerman? Who knows, but we do know they lied and that bring everything else they’ve said about this case into question.

I also rescind my previous theory that Zimmerman was a man with a hero complex. As more evidence has trickled its way past the media censors the picture of an angry man with a gun and a vendetta against black people is quickly dissolving. Underneath evidence of Zimmerman being attacked can be seen leading the way for a valid self-defense claim. We can only sit and wait for the grand jury to look at all the available evidence and decide whether or not it’s enough to take this case to trail.

United States Government Expands Record Keeping Powers

Being a little jealous of how quickly France is moving towards fascism the United States government has made a move to further expand its own police state:

The U.S. intelligence community will be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines.

Until now, the National Counterterrorism Center had to destroy immediately information about Americans that already was stored in other government databases when there were no clear ties to terrorism.

Giving the NCTC expanded record-retention authority had been urged by members of Congress, who said the intelligence community did not connect strands of intelligence held by multiple agencies leading up to a failed bombing attempt on a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas 2009.

The part that really galls me is that Congress is using a failed bombing attempt as justification for this regulatory change. If the bombing attempt failed then everything worked as planned. As Bruce Schneier pointed out the attempted bombing was an example of where airport security actually did its job:

With all the talk about the failure of airport security to detect the PETN that the Christmas bomber sewed into his underwear — and to think I’ve been using the phrase “underwear bomber” as a joke all these years — people forget that airport security played an important role in foiling the plot.

In order to get through airport security, Abdulmutallab — or, more precisely, whoever built the bomb — had to construct a far less reliable bomb than he would have otherwise; he had to resort to a much more ineffective detonation mechanism. And, as we’ve learned, detonating PETN is actually very hard.

Now, almost a year and a half later, Congress is using the failed bombing attempt to justify an expansion of state power and nobody is even raising an eyebrow. You would think somebody would say, “Hey Congress, the attempted bombing on Christmas of 2009 failed. Shouldn’t you use a bombing attempt that succeeded to justify your power grab?”

How to Guarantee a Law Passes

France has either forgotten what it was like under Nazi rule or greatly enjoyed it because they continue down the road to fascism. With the recent gunman who terrorized the people of France gone the state is looking at ways to exploit the situation to further solidify its power and one of those ways is advocating a law that will give jail time to those who visit “extremist” websites. Nicolas Sarkozy, the current dictator under threat of being ousted, has been pushing this law and is pulling out all the stops:

On Thursday, Sarkozy used a televised address to propose a new set of laws that criminalize the use of websites affiliated with terrorist sympathizers and hate groups. “From now on, any person who habitually consults Web sites that advocate terrorism or that call for hatred and violence will be criminally punished,” he said.

The pronouncement came on the heels of the police manhunt for and 32-hour standoff with Mohamed Merah, a 23-year old French citizen accused of murdering three French paratroopers, a rabbi, and three Jewish schoolchildren. “Don’t tell me it’s not possible,” Sarkozy said. “What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.”

Emphasis mine. Sarkozy not only played the terrorism card but also managed to play the pedophile card. Either card in of themselves can guarantee the passage of a law but when you combine the two it has to be a surefire win. What politician is willing to vote down a law that could get them accused of being a terrorist pedophile?

It’s pretty obvious this law is going to be slammed through and that will require even more state monitoring of French denizens’ Internet activities. I’m sure that the law will be expanded in the future to give jail time to denizens who visit sites with other types of unapproved information like pornography and websites providing anti-government news.