Month: August 2012

Disappearing We the People Petitions

After Obama’s election the executive branch spent a lot of money to create the We the People site. We the People is supposed to be a site where anybody can submit a petition and, if it gets enough votes within a span of time, have it addressed by the White House. In reality these petitions are ignored although writing up bullshit reasons for ignoring them must have been too much work because the White House is now deleting petitions they don’t want to deal with:

At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House “We the People” website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for “maintenance” following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign.

It would be pretty difficult to argue against a petition that demanded the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) obey the law so the only way to deal with it was to toss it down the memory hole.

What the State Does

What happened to the 13 year-old entrepreneur who, in an attempt to make ends meet for his family, purchased a food cart and was shutdown by the state? He and his family are now homeless:

Several weeks after a city zoning officer shut down his hot dog business, 13-year-old Nathan Duszynski and his parents are homeless.

The family was hoping Nathan’s hot dog cart could help them through a difficult time. Nathan’s mother, Lynette Johnson, suffers from epilepsy and his stepfather, Doug Johnson, has multiple sclerosis. Their illnesses have restricted them from finding permanent, full-time work.

The family receives about $1,300 a month in disability payments, Medicaid and food assistance. The three are having a hard time staying together. MLive confirms what the Mackinac Center learned Thursday — Nathan and his mother are staying at the Holland Rescue Mission.

“Nate and I are now in a shelter,” Lynette Johnson said. “Doug can’t stay with us because he takes prescription narcotics to deal with his pain and the shelter does not allow him with those kinds of drugs.”

This shouldn’t surprise anybody, making families of 13 year-old entrepreneurs homeless in order to protect the politically well-connected from competitors is what the state does. In factm in a rare demonstration of honesty, the state simply admitted to protectionism instead of trying to wrap a layer of regulatory bullshit around their misdeed:

Last week, Nathan and his family made an appeal to the Holland City Council. Mayor Kurt Dykstra defended the city’s ordinance, saying it was to protect downtown restaurant owners, who asked that the “success of the downtown district not be infringed upon by those who don’t share in the costs of maintaining the attractiveness of that space.”

It’s a good thing we have a big powerful violent state in place to protect the “success of the downtown district” from dangerous 13 year-old entrepreneurs.

Fascist Selects Fascist as Running Mate

Bound to surprise nobody, economic fascist Mitt Romney selected economic fascist Paul Ryan to be his running mate:

Mitt Romney has named Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate.

“Mitt’s choice for VP is Paul Ryan. Spread the word about America’s Comeback Team. #RomneyRyan2012,” was the message the Romney campaign sent out via their VP app early this morning.

I’m not throwing the word fascist around for shock factor. Both individuals support a marriage between the state and private enterprise, which is one of the planks of fascism. Paul Ryan voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was an interference in the free market that rewarded failing companies instead of letting them die off. He also supported making the PATRIOT Act permanent and believes the state should be allowed to perform warrantless wiretaps.

Needless to say Romney’s running mate is very similar to Romney.

Minnesota GOCRA Releases Gun rights Ratings for Primary Candidate Elections

Minnesota’s primary election is going down tomorrow and many of you may be wondering where the candidates stand on the issue of gun rights. To answer that question the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (GOCRA) has released their gun rights grades for candidates in this state’s primary elections.

In a move that must have been specially crafted to reinforce my view of politics I notice that all three of the primary candidates in my senate district are rated F or F* (which indicates that the candidate didn’t care enough to actually fill out GOCRA’s survey and is usually a pretty clear indicator that the candidate has no love for gun rights). My house district faired a little better since only one of the two candidates have an F rating.

Unintended Consequences of Farm Subsidies

Every time the state interferes with the market they create unintended consequences. This year’s weather can be summed up as hot and dry, which isn’t ideal for growing crops. Needless to say that bitch Mother Nature has greatly reduced the yields on foodstuff and that is leading to increasing food prices:

The price of many food products could rise later this year as much of the country is hit with the worst drought in a generation. Wholesale corn prices shot up nearly 5 percent yesterday, and soybean prices are also heading higher. Crop losses will be a blow to America’s rural economy and cut farm exports. The US Agriculture Department slashed its estimate of this fall’s corn crop by 12 percent – compared with last month’s forecast. Officials say 38 percent of the corn crop is in poor condition because of the drought. A shortage of corn and soybeans is raising concerns about global food shortages and inflation. That said, it would be easy to overstate the impact on the national economy and American consumers, especially if the weather improves soon. It may take months for some food and meat costs to rise in supermarkets. According to a government estimate, cereals and grains accounts for just 2 percent of the US consumer price index.

Nobody should be surprised by this, less supply combined with steady or increasing demand has a tendency to lead to higher prices. What does this have to do with government interference in free markets? Consider a free market in foodstuff for a moment. As food prices continue to fall producers are likely hold onto the food they’ve produced until prices increase sufficiently. Effectively a surplus is created with the intention of selling it at higher prices at a later time.

This is where state interference in the agriculture market comes into play. Through various agricultural subsidies the state has discouraged farmers from creating a surplus of food, instead they are paying farmers to destroy surpluses [PDF]:

In 1936 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had no authority to administer land-idling acreage controls under New Deal farm legislation, on the Constitutional grounds “that powers not granted are prohibited. None to regulate agricultural production is given, and therefore legislation by Congress for that purpose is forbidden.” (U.S. Supreme Court 1936). Subsequently, the Court’s alleged respect for precedent was not extended to this decision, and many later production control measures have passed Constitutional muster.4 At the time, the result of the Court’s decision was a merger of prior concerns about conservation with measures to remove acreage from commodity production. This was done in the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 principally by defining “soil-depleting” crops (the main basic commodities) and “soil-conserving” crops (grasses and legumes), and paying farmers to substitute the latter for the former.

Instead of having surpluses of food waiting to be sold during times of low yield (which are also times of higher prices) farmers have been paid to destroy surplus crops meaning a low yield will necessarily create an actual shortage. Once again an unintended consequence emerges from from state meddling in economic affairs. While the short term gain to farmers was notable the severity of hazard being placed on the rest of society, namely a possible food shortage, has the potential of being extremely damaging.

This Witch Hunt will be Interesting

Mr. Hwang had police officers draw firearms on him before arresting him because he was peacefully minding his own business. As it turns out Mr. Hwang is a lawyer, which means this case is likely to get very interesting:

Sung-Ho Hwang (pictured at left), a 46-year-old lawyer and president-elect of the New Haven County Bar Association, was arrested Tuesday night at an evening showing of the latest Batman movie at the Criterion. Three patrons saw him carry a gun into the theater and— on the heels of a mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo. screening of the same movie last month—called the cops. They swept into the theater and charged Hwang with breach of peace and interfering after he allegedly refused to obey orders to show his hands.

Arresting a lawyer that wasn’t doing anything illegal is a good way to find yourself at the business end of a rather nasty lawsuit. The article does state that Mr. Hwang was arrested for refusing to obey the police officers’ orders but those orders, which were for everybody in the theater to raise their hands and submit to a pat down, weren’t lawful and thus shouldn’t have been obeyed. It would be like your neighbor coming to your home and demanding you give him $50.00 for no reason at all. In such a situation you should rightly ignore your neighbor’s demands.

Adding a little spice to the story it appears as through the mayor of New Haven, Connecticut is a little despot:

At a 4 p.m. press conference Wednesday, Mayor John DeStefano and Police Chief Dean Esserman stood behind the cops and condemned Hwang’s behavior. DeStefano said people shouldn’t carry guns into dark movie theaters.

“Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it right,” DeStefano said.

Emphasis mine. Whether something is right or not has no relevance to this case, the only thing that matters is whether or not Mr. Hwang’s actions in the theater were legal. Since he possessed a valid carry permit it was legal for him to carry his firearm into that theater and therefore he shouldn’t have been arrested by the police. In fact I question the legality of sending police officers into a theater and having them demand every patron stand up, raise their hands, walk out of the theater in a single file line, and submit to a warrantless search of their persons. If anybody should be considered criminals in this case it’s the New Haven police officers.

The Inevitable Outcome of Attempting to Rob a Gun Store

In general gun stores are heavily armed and the owners rarely tolerate shenanigans like trying to drive a car through their storefront:

One man is dead and two are recovering after being shot by a gun store owner during a burglary of his business Thursday morning.

Stephen Bayazes Jr., 57, told officers that he and his wife were asleep in an apartment at the back of the business, Guns & Ammo Gunsmith, 522 Edgefield Road, shortly before 4 a.m. when he awoke after hearing a loud crash and the activation of a silent alarm.

Bayazes grabbed an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and found three men loading guns into a van that had crashed through the side wall of the store.

After hearing the men yell to kill him, Bayazes shot one 30-round magazine of .223-caliber bullets before retreating to his bedroom to reload, he later told officers.

Obviously these criminals were rocket scientists. This story also answers the gun control advocate’s question regarding the need for AR-15s. Sometimes you have a group of criminals who drive their van through your storefront and having semi-automatic rifle is pretty useful.

Upgrading Your Order for Free

What do you call somebody who ordered a $400 television and received a $2,000 rifle? A very lucky man:

Seth Horvitz tells DCist that he had purchased a flat-screen HDTV for he and his wife from one of Amazon’s affiliated sellers. What arrived was a decidedly non-TV shaped box containing a Sig Sauer SIG716, a $2,000 rifle manufactured by Swiss Arms AG.

Semi-automatic firearms like the SIG716 are actually illegal in Washington, D.C. and even transporting them through the state is a serious crime. Horvitz called the cops upon discovering the box’s content, which was smart since keeping it in his home — or transporting it in his car — could have landed him in serious trouble otherwise. Attempting to return it could also have been very, very bad.

Considering the laws in Washington DC I think I would have kept my mouth shut. As the story points out transporting the firearm is illegal so one can’t bring it to the intended recipient, the intended recipient can’t collect it, and it can’t be taken to the police. On top of that mere possession of the rifle is illegal in the city. Basically Mr. Horvitz was in a catch-22 and his best option would have been to shut up, hide the rifle or smuggle it out of Washington DC, and if anybody came looking for the missing rifle to claim he never received any package (while possibly noting that he still hasn’t received the television he ordered, implying concern about packages being stolen).

This is another example of why gun control is absurd. The simple act of receiving a package accidentally runs the risk of landing one in very hot water with the local authorities. Fortunately the Washington DC police haven’t decided to prosecute Mr. Horvitz for being in possession of an illegal weapon but they could change their minds.

A hat tip goes to The Firearm Blog for this story.

Beware of Terrorist Photographers

Are you afraid of everybody yet? Has the state finally convinced you that the sweet old lady living down the street is actually a secret Al Qaeda spy who is plotting to kill you and everybody you love? Do you avoid members of the Muslim faith because the state has convinced you that their religion is actually a thin veil to coverup their terroristic activities? When you see a man walking down the street with a holstered firearm on his hip do you run in the oppose direction knowing that he’s a racist right-wing extremist? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions prepare to have an even more fear filled life because photographers are out to kill your mother and rape your father:

Once again, a government agency is encouraging citizens to report photographers as potential terrorists.

This time it is the City of Houston, which has produced a high-budgeted video funded by the Department of Homeland Security.

Starting at 1:45 in the video titled “Make the Call – Terrorism Prevention – The Threat is Real,” a male authoritative voice states the following:

Cameras and recording devices have gotten so small, that most of us seem to have one with us all the time. It’s not unusual to see people taking pictures or video almost anywhere.

But surveillance and information gathering is a common practice used by terrorists prior to an attack. If you see someone trying to conceal what they are doing, taking pictures of exits, security or restricted areas, if they hang around for no apparent reason, ask inappropriate questions about schedules or the facility, or if they try to avoid security when approached, make the call.

[…]

The video also encourages citizens and employees to call police in the event that somebody happens to leave a bag behind at a restaurant instead of just trying to yell out to that person in the case they may have just left it behind by accident.

What’s surprising isn’t the fact the state continues to make these videos, it’s the fact that some people actually believe them. Even though you’re eight times more likely to be killed by a costume clad state thug than a terrorist people still believe that the state exists to protect them from the terrorists.

For the record, if I ever forget my backpack or laptop bag I’d greatly appreciate somebody letting me know instead of calling the police. I don’t want to be the target of a state investigation because I forgot something.