April 2015 – Page 4 – A Geek With Guns

Rand Paul’s Worst Nightmare

A lot of libertarians who went through the Republican nomination process in a futile attempt to get Ron Paul nominated have been pointing out Rand’s chances are basically nil. But the nomination process isn’t the only thing that may stop Rand’s campaign in its tracks. He has a wily competitor for president and that competitor has a secret weapon:

Vermin is also known for using his fairy dust to turn democratic presidential candidate Randall Terry gay back in 2012. Odds are good Rand is aware of this tactic, and that may be his motivation to keep Vermin away. In an interview this afternoon, Vermin acknowledged it’s possible that Rand fears being turned gay, and would not comment on whether he has any fairy dust in his possession, calling that a “closely held secret.” Rand better hope Vermin isn’t holding any fairy dust. He can’t afford to go gay, as he’ll lose his base of conservative homophobic anti-gay marriage supporters and thereby any shot at winning the primary.

Being turned gay by Vermin Supreme (and let’s be honest, almost any man would turn gay for Vermin Supreme) would not only end Rand’s presidential run but his political career. There are two things that will ensure the Republican Party base won’t support you: being gay or Muslim.

With that said it’s nice to see Vermin Supreme entering the race once again. He’s the only presidential candidate I’m willing to endorse. Although I’m wary of his dental reeducation camps his promises of zombie power and free ponies are needed if this nation is to rise to glory. I doubt any other candidate stands a chance against him and am willing to call it now: Vermin Supreme will be the next president of the United States (so long as Emperor Norton allows it, of course).

Children Are Property of the State

Many parents mistakenly believe that they are the legal guardians of their children. I say mistakenly because they are merely enjoying the temporary privilege of being the legal guardian of their children. That privilege, like all privileges, can be revoked at any moment by the state. One may wonder what would convince the state to revoke such a privilege. Most people would likely answer things such as letting a child starve or beating the child. Perhaps that was the case at some point in the past but more and more the state is revoke the permission of parents to be legal guardians of their children for asinine reasons. Now the state has gone so far as to rule that parents need not be at fault of anything to lose their guardian privileges:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The state can remove an out-of-control child from the custody of a parent even if the mother or father is not to blame for the child’s behavior, a California appeals court said Thursday.

If children face substantial risk of harming themselves, it doesn’t matter whether the parent did anything intentional to put them in that position, the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled.

When you see the words “substantial risk of harming themselves” you may think about suicidal children and parents not properly securing things like knives, guns, or pills. That’s not the case here:

Thursday’s ruling came in the case of a Los Angeles County mother whose teen daughter repeatedly ran away from home and had a child at the age of 15. The appellate court said the girl remained incorrigible despite her mother’s best efforts, which included looking for her each time she left home, sending her to live with her grandparents and calling the police and Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services for help. The mother was identified in court documents only as “Lisa E.” and her daughter as “R.T.”

“(The) mother in this case was neither neglectful nor blameworthy in being unable to supervise or protect her daughter,” the court said.

Fortunately the state decided to swoop in, revoke the mother’s guardian privileges, and kidnap the child. In the end the state decided to grant guardianship privileges to the child’s grandparents but it could have just as easily decided to be less benevolent and placed the child in foster care or even prison (since the intention was to prevent the child from running away). This case just demonstrates what us anarchist already know; children are the property of the state.

The Best We’re Going to Get

The biggest downside to Rand Paul running for president is that Rand Paul is running for president. Normally I wouldn’t care but I’m a libertarian and that has caused a lot of people to ask me what my opinion of Rand is. To make matters worse they expect my response to be positive and get upset when it’s not. Usually they say some variation of “He’s the best we’re going to get!”

That’s like marrying an abusive significant other because you think that they’re the best you’re going to get. You shouldn’t settle for shit just because your other suitors are slightly shittier. Spend some time being single, or in this case not involved in politics, and enjoy your life until something genuinely good comes around.

I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.

Whatever the state controls can be arbitrarily changed at a moment’s notice with nothing more than a stroke of a pen and enough men in suits saying “Aye!” A counterargument to anarchism is that the state is necessary to help those in need. The argument is bullshit. Under a state assistance of those in need, as with everything else, is entirely controlled by the state. Over time this usually results in the state claiming a monopoly, or near monopoly, on providing welfare. At that point welfare becomes unpredictable because the rules can change at any moment. Missouri is experiencing one of these attempted arbitrary rule changes now as several politicians try to restrict what type of foodstuff food stamp recipients can buy:

That story fit a longtime conservative suspicion that poor people use food stamps to purchase luxury items. Now, a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is pushing for legislation that would stop people like Greenslate and severely limit what food stamp recipients can buy. The bill being proposed would ban the purchase with food stamps of “cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood or steak.”

“The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original intent, which is nutrition assistance,” said Rick Brattin, the representative who is sponsoring the proposed legislation.

As the article points out the lawmakers may have a claim if they stopped at cookies, chips, energy drinks, and soft drinks. But seafood and steak are broad categories that encompass many nutritional foods. There are a lot of cheap seafood and steak options, especially when they’re on sale. Of course none of these politicians have an educational background in nutrition so whatever rules they make are, as always, arbitrary.

I know a lot of people are cheering this as a good idea. Most of those people would probably be happy if government food assistance only allowed enrollees to buy Soylent. They see people on government assistance as moochers who are stealing valuable tax dollars. It’s a misguided viewpoint. Their anger should be directed at the state as it is the entity that, through approximately a century of regulatory bullshit, transferred welfare from voluntary mutual aid groups to itself. Were welfare still in the hands of mutual aid groups those who didn’t want to participate wouldn’t have to and welfare would again be of a far higher quality.

In addition to that I also believe their anger is misguided because it assumes that those tax dollars would be put to better uses. Every dollar that gets put into welfare is a dollar that isn’t being put into buying more bombs, building better surveillance systems, or providing the police with even heavier armaments. As far as I’m concerned food assistance recipients should be allowed to buy caviar if they want it. Anything that pulls resources away from the state’s enforcement arms is good in my book.

Murdered Over a Broken Taillight

The murder of Walter Scott is receiving a lot of much needed media coverage. Thanks to the fact the murdered, Officer Michael Slager, was filmed this case didn’t get swept underneath the rug like so many others. It should serve as a reminder that people should always film any police encounter they’re involved in or are witnessing. But there’s one fact about this case that’s not receiving enough media attention, the event that lead to Scott’s murder:

The confrontation occurred around 9:30 a.m. ET on Saturday after Slager pulled over Scott’s car because of a broken taillight.

A man is dead because our rulers have deemed it acceptable to send armed thugs after people with broken equipment. Broken taillights are a simple matter to solve without pulling people over. Each vehicle has a unique license plate number that identifies it. If an officer sees a car with a broken taillight they could just look up who the vehicle is registered to, something they routinely do when they pull somebody over, and send them a letter informing them that their taillight is broken. Instead officers are allowed to turn on their loud sirens and flashy attention whore lights, force drivers to pull over to the side of the road, and waddle their heavily armed and often aggressive asses over to the driver to terrify them for a bit before issuing them a citation.

Walter Scott would almost certainly still be alive today if broken taillights weren’t grounds for officers to initiate force against motorists. In addition to being a remind of police brutality this story is also a reminder than any police encounter, regardless of how minor the offense that preceded the encounter was, can escalate to deadly force.

Customer Service with a Middle Finger

The worst part about monopolies is if you don’t like their service you have no alternatives. When it comes to monopolies the state is the biggest one of them all and it shows. For example, the state has declared a monopoly for itself in gang-style protection schemes. That is to say if you don’t want to be roughed up, kidnapped, or have your business stolen from you you only have one protection racket you can pay off, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Since the IRS has no competition it can demand you pay it off under the penalty of having armed thugs sent to kidnap you and still refuse to answer any of the questions you have about its overly complicated extortion structure:

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday that service at his agency has gotten so bad that they are ignoring more than 60 percent of taxpayers’ phone calls during this tax season.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Mr. Koskinen pleaded with more money, saying a budget boost would help them staff their overwhelmed customer service lines. He also said it would help reverse staffing cuts in their compliance division, where he said the government will lose $2 billion this year in money it would otherwise have been able to collect if it had better staffing.

Just because the IRS refuses to take your call doesn’t mean your exempted from or receive an automatic delay for paying your extortion bill. And since the IRS has no competition it has no motivation whatsoever to improve its service. After all, if you don’t pay you’re still going to rot in a cage and your assets will be stolen from you.

It Prints Money

It’s not very often that a politician who supports gun control proposes a gun related bill that I support. The planets must have aligned though because Rosa DeLauro, some politicians from Connecticut, is putting forth a bill that is meant to eliminating semi-automatic rifles with aesthetically offensive features. Instead of banning them outright though DeLauro’s bill would give gun owners who turned in their aesthetically offensive rifles a sizable tax credit:

The Support Assault Firearm Elimination and Education of our (SAFER) Streets Act expected to be reintroduced next week by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) would provide gun owners with an incentive to turn in their firearms to local police departments.

“Assault weapons are not about hunting, or even self-defense,” DeLauro said. “There is no reason on earth, other than to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, that anyone needs a gun designed for a battlefield.”

Though DeLauro is in favor of stronger guns laws that would completely ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, she emphasized this bill would not force gun owners to turn in their firearms.

The legislation would provide up to $2,000 in tax credits for gun owners who voluntarily hand over assault weapons to their local police departments.

I wonder how long it took her staffers to come up with that title. Setting aside her absolutely idiotic view about aesthetically offensive rifles this bill is actually a good idea. Why? Because it allows anybody who can legally possess a firearm to print money:

Wilson’s latest radically libertarian project is a PC-connected milling machine he calls the Ghost Gunner. Like any computer-numerically-controlled (or CNC) mill, the one-foot-cubed black box uses a drill bit mounted on a head that moves in three dimensions to automatically carve digitally-modeled shapes into polymer, wood or aluminum. But this CNC mill, sold by Wilson’s organization known as Defense Distributed for $1,200, is designed to create one object in particular: the component of an AR-15 rifle known as its lower receiver.

For the initial investment of $1,200 plus some additional money for blocks of aluminum you can net yourself a potential $2,000 tax credit every year! Or you could invest in a 3D printer and manufacture plastic lowers for even greater profit! The possibilities are limitless. You could then use the money you saved on your taxes to buy yourself a nice AR-15, SCAR, Tavor, or other modern rifle.

Sounds too good to be true? If you read the legislation there are no exceptions for home manufactured firearms. It merely says the weapon must be legally possessed and it is legal for anybody who can possess a firearm to manufacture one so long as they don’t transfer it to another person. The bill then lists what it considers an “assault weapon” to be and AR-15s are prominently on the list. Furthermore the lower is the piece legally considered a firearm on an AR-15 so you don’t need to surrender a fully assembled rifle. Unless I missed something, which is always a possibility, there is nothing in this bill that would bar somebody from manufacturing a cheap AR-15 lower and turning it in for a tax credit every year (sadly the bill does limit a person to only one tax credit per year).

Imagine if every person who could legally possess an aesthetically offensive rifle turned in a cheap chunk of plastic every year to enjoy a $2,000 tax credit. It would really help bleed the state dry. For that reason alone I support this bill and hope others will join me in my quest to utilize it to its maximum potential.

You Can’t Stop the Signal

Two days ago a giant bust of Edward Snowden was found perched atop the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument in Fort Greene Park. The sculpture was of the best sort, illicit. It didn’t take long for the authorities to coverup and then remove Snowden from the park, which sent a more prominent message than anything else they could have done. But the signal can’t be stopped. Yesterday a different group of artists created a hologram of Snowden at the site of the previous sculpture:

NEW YORK — Hours after police removed an illicit bust of Edward Snowden from its perch in a Brooklyn park on Monday, artists replaced it with a hologram.

The group of artists — who collectively call themselves “The Illuminator” and are not related to the trio behind the original sculpture — used laptops and projection equipment to cast an image of Snowden in a haze of smoke at the spot where the sculpture once stood.

They say the action was a message of defiance aimed at the authorities who “censored” the piece, according to a tumblr post.

I believe if anybody is deserving of a monument it’s Snowden. He belongs to that rare breed of people willing to risk it all to bring our rulers’ dirty laundry to light. Someday I hope a monument of him and Chelsea Manning are erected in dedication to the idea that breaking the law is sometimes the most heroic thing one can do.

When You Can’t Fool Politicians You Can’t Fool Anybody

Those who are involved in the gun rights battle in Minnesota are likely familiar with the name Minnesota Gun Rights (MGR). The organization claims to be Minnesota’s no-compromise gun rights organization but as far as anybody can tell the organization is just a front to relieve gullible gun owners of their money. Between the organization’s shady ties and the evasiveness of its supporters whenever they’re asked what MGR does it isn’t difficult to see why many, including myself, believe it to be a scam.

It appears that MGR has been unable to fool even the biggest scam artists in Minnesota, the politicians. I was made aware of letter signed by several Minnesota politicians that warned gun owners of MGR and noted that legal action has been initiated against the organization. The original document can be found here [PDF]. For those who don’t want to open a PDF file here is the text of the document:

An open letter to our constituents, and to all Minnesota gun owners:

As your representatives, we are committed to protecting and restoring your Second Amendment rights, and we are fortunate to have many allies and supporters in this mission. Unfortunately, there are also fakers – people who would take advantage of you, and claim to fight for your gun rights, while doing nothing, and sometimes hurting them, all to get your money.

One such pretender is a fund-raising operation in Des Moines, calling itself “Minnesota Gun Rights.” This operation, like its affiliate, “National Association for Gun Rights” (NAGR) relies on constant postal mailings, warning you of terrible gun control if you don’t send them money.

We are on the front lines, fighting for your gun rights every day at the State Capitol, and we can tell you: we’ve never seen these Iowans fight for Minnesotans’ gun rights. They have not helped us to write and pass pro-2A legislation, they haven’t brought supporters to the Capitol, and they haven’t even mentioned the pro-rights bills we’ve advanced this year, including Rep. Anderson’s suppressor legalization, Rep. Nash’s Capitol carry notification bill, Rep, Lucero’s interstate sales bill, Rep. Fabian’s carry reciprocity bill, or Rep. Newberger’s emergency powers bill.

Instead, these Iowa schemers have attacked strong pro-Second Amendment legislators – legislators like us, who are working for your rights – when those legislators don’t pledge loyalty to these pretenders. They have attacked our party leadership, and the real, grassroots organizations that have worked for decades to pass right to carry, range protection, and stand your ground, and who were key in blocking a raft of gun control bills in the last legislative cycle.

Worst of all, they are fraudulently using the name and signature of one of our pro-rights legislators, Glenn Gruenhagen, to fundraise from Iowa.

Although Rep. Gruenhagen, once, long ago, as a favor to a constituent, allowed the operation to use his name, he has repeatedly ordered this group to stop using his name, but they continue to fraudulently send letters over his signature. Rep. Gruenhagen has been forced to initiate legal action against these fraudsters.

We urge you to exercise caution when you hear from people who claim to fight for your rights. We depend on real grassroots Second Amendment groups like the NRA, Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (GOCRA) and the Minnesota Gun Owners Political Action Committee (MNGOPAC) to help us fight for your rights, and we urge you to support these groups.

Don’t be fooled by the fake, out-of-state “Minnesota Gun Rights.” They’re not working with us, and they’re not working for you.

If you have any questions, we always want to hear from our constituents, and we urge you to contact us.

There isn’t much else to say about MGR. If it can’t even convince politicians, which usually takes nothing more than lining their pockets with a bit of cash, that its a legitimate organization then there really is no hope left.

Again I will urge my fellow gun owners here in Minnesota to refrain from giving money to MGR. Nothing I have seen so far leads me to believe that the organization is anything other than a massive scam and even its supporters seem entirely unwilling to discuss what the organization has done other than hold biannual super secret meetings that are never publicly announced.

How You Know You Don’t Care About Politics Anymore

The man who started me on the path that eventually lead me to anarchism is Ron Paul. He’s a good man and I generally like what he says. I’ve also attended several of his speeches. Last night he came to the University of Minnesota to give a speech. Several of my friends and I manned the AgoraFest table because somebody has to advocate actual liberty at these events that somehow get heavily attended by Republican groups. Those of us manning tables received free admission to the event so I’m going to give you the rundown of what he said.

Just kidding. Instead of attending the speech a friend and I did something else.

When you decide to go drinking at a nearby bar instead of attend a speech by a man who you still respect but enjoys talking about politics even today you know you’ve stopped caring about politics. This really was one of my shining moments in freeing myself from the clutches of political bullshit.