Tag: Minnesota

Minnesota Loses 11,600 Jobs, Unemployment Goes Down, Math Stops Making Sense

According to the Star Tribune the State of Minnesota lost 11,600 jobs last month but, somehow, unemployment went down:

Minnesota’s job market posted its second straight negative month, shedding 11,400 jobs in April, the state said Thursday.

The biggest job losses were in trade, transportation and utilities, which shed 5,700 jobs, according to figures released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 5.3 percent in April, its lowest point since May 2008 and well below the U.S. rate of 7.5 percent in April. The March figures were revised upward from 5,200 jobs lost to 3,300 jobs lost.

One may wonder how an economy could lose jobs and experience a drop in unemployment. Logic would dictate that unemployment would go up as the number of people without jobs also went up. What we’re seeing here is another example of the state cooking the books in order to make unemployment look better than it actually is. I’ve touched on how the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses what is called the U3 unemployment statistic in order to make unemployment look better than it actually is. Another trick often used by statist statisticians, such as the ones employed by the State of Minnesota, is seasonal adjustments.

Seasonal adjustments, as the name implies, involves removing drops in unemployment caused by seasonal changes from the official statistic. The theory goes something like this:

  1. During certain seasons there is a spike in employment during the rush to hire needed seasonal help. Christmas, for example, generally involves a spike in employment as stores try to have enough staff to deal with the Christmas season rush.
  2. After these seasons conclude stores, who no longer need the additional help, can the seasonal employees.
  3. Since this is seasonal it can be safely ignored when creating unemployment statistics because those employees aren’t actually unemployed, they’re, err, um, look over there!
  4. …
  5. Prosperity!

In other words if your unemployment statistic is looking bad you merely have to write off a large section of unemployed people as a seasonal phenomenon and your unemployment statistic will suddenly look better! Further adding precedence to this scam is the fact that there are multiple seasonal adjustment calculations to choose from! If one of the calculations isn’t giving you the statistic you want you can simply use a different one. Eventually you’ll find a calculation that will give you the statistic you desire.

War is peace, freedom is slavery, and unemployment is employment.

Tax Victims to Foot the Bill for the Vikings Stadium

Remember when the Minnesota legislature and Mark Dayton said Minnesota’s tax victims wouldn’t be on the hook to pay for the new Vikings Stadium because proceeds from electronic pull tabs would cover the costs? As it turns out gambling revenues weren’t as high as the estimates had people believing so Minnesotans are going to be paying the bill:

Gov. Mark Dayton wants to rely on new revenues from cigarette and corporate income tax to help pay the state’s share of a new Vikings stadium.

Myron Frans, commissioner of revenue, explained Dayton’s plan to the Tax Conference Committee Thursday.

It would include two funding sources: approximately $24.5 million in one-time revenues from tax on the current cigarette inventory once the tax is increased. Dayton is proposing an increase from the current tax of $1.23 per pack to $2.52 per pack.

It’ll state with cigarette and corporate income tax but I guarantee that the state will be pilfering from everybody in a short while. Meanwhile Zigy Wilf, the owner of the Vikings, will continue enjoying his life as a billionaire thanks, in part, to the fact we’re all paying for his Colosseum.

I always thought the point of bread and circuses was to distract the serfs from their miserable existence not remind them of it.

First USPSA Match of the Season

Last night we had our first United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) match at the Oakdale Gun Club. Due to the ammunition crisis I’ve been sitting on my stockpile in anticipation for USPSA, which means I haven’t shot for months (I did shoot a little last week but I was mostly at the range to help my girlfriend sight in here new AR-15). Surprisingly I didn’t suck as much as I thought I was going to. Although I did hit one no-shoot I’m fairly certain he was a Klan member or a Nazi so I think it was OK.

I also lacked the time to get a bunch of blog posts up for today so you’re not going to get much. If this bothers you feel free to incentive me to write more by paying me money.

Please Rob My House Signs

According to Minneapolis police thieves looking for guns are specifically targeting homes that have signs such as “This home protected by Smith and Wesson”:

Law enforcement officials say members of a north Minneapolis street gang are looking to burglarize homes that appear to contain guns. According to a search warrant request filed recently in Hennepin County District Court by investigators with the FBI Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force, members of the Loud Pack gang, “target homes with American flags in the front yard because they believe these are homes or [sic] veterans and will have firearms inside them. Other items they take from these burglaries are sold on the street to various people to support the activates [sic] of the gang.”

The document doesn’t say how often gang members’ strategy for finding guns was successful. However, some say there’s a much easier way for burglars to find out which homes contain guns — the “This home protected by (insert your gun maker here)” sticker. Minneapolis police officials have told me those stickers can actually attract intruders, rather than repel them.

I’m not sure if the Minneapolis Police Department are basing this warning on a rash or recent burglaries or if they’re just trying to get people to pull down such signs because they’re making non-gun owning neighbors nervous but it’s good advice to not have such signs posted in my opinion. Those signs do give burglars notice that there is a high likelihood of firearms being inside and they merely need to stake out the home and wait until it’s empty to get their grubby mitts on them. It’s generally a bad idea to volunteer information to somebody looking to cause you harm.

Minneapolis CryptoParty

Just so everybody knows the newly established, and at this point entirely unofficial, Minnesota Pirate Party is hosting a CryptoParty on Monday, May 13th. The event will be held at 4200 Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis, MN and is planned to go from 18:00 to 21:00.

Although I’m not sure what specifically will be covered I’m going to make an effort to ensure e-mail encryption and, if time allows, Tor are discussed. Being a CryptoParty there will also be key signing and the usual such shenanigans.

Minnesota’s Legislature Ceasing Its Pursuit of Gun Control… Until Later

With all the talk of increasing taxes I guess the Minnesota legislature has decided they’re going to rape us hard enough this year because they’re apparently ceasing their pursuit of gun control:

While that bill has moved through committee in the Senate, it has faced strong opposition from the National Rifle Association and gun-rights supporters in the Legislature. Thissen tried once to forge a compromise, which focused on background checks at private sales at gun shows.

But even that bill faced difficulty in passing the House.

“We’re not going to take up the gun bill this year,” he said. “Neither side has been willing to come to an agreement. We just need more time to work out something that’s going to work to prevent gun violence.

“I think because of the intensity on both sides of the issue, even some common-sense solutions can’t be agreed upon right now,” he said. “It’s going to have to be something we’ll continue to work on over the interim.”

I’m sure the legislature will continue their pursuit soon enough. Mr. Thissen says work must be done before a “common-sense” solution can be agreed upon. Being a man who likes to help people come together I have a proposal for a way the state can reduce the amount of gun violence in Minnesota. It’s a simple proposal and requires the state to abolish all laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and use of drugs not approved by the state. Doing that would prevent shit like this from happening. If the legislature is really serious about stamping out gun violence their second move would be to disband the entire Minnesota government, which is the largest perpetrator of gun violence in the state (seriously, government agents seem to have a hard-on for shooting dogs and threatening nonviolent individuals).

Minnesota Gun Rights Battle Round Two

Several things are certain in life. Water will always be wet, fire will always be hot, and politicians, if you let them, will always try to take more power from you and transfer it to themselves. After the battle here in Minnesota for gun rights concluded with no real changes a couple of politicians have decided to restart their holy crusade:

MINNEAPOLIS — Some Minnesota lawmakers are still hoping to pass tougher gun laws this session, despite a defeat for gun control advocates earlier this week in Washington.

The two main sponsors of gun control legislation in the House and Senate, Rep. Michael Paymar and Sen. Ron Latz, say they are disappointed that a U.S. Senate effort to extend background checks was recently voted down.

The two Democrats are pushing for legislation that would not only increase background checks, but would also patch holes in the state’s background check system and add more crimes to the list of offenses that make a person ineligible to possess a firearm.

This is a battle that will continue until the politicians know that we gun owners will no longer comply with the state. So long as we show a willingness to play their game and obey their decrees they will believe they hold power over us. I’m sure calls will go out for Minnesota gun owners to show up to hearing and make their presence known and all that jazz that didn’t even win us half a year of reprieve. You can do that if you want but I urge you to take a different route. Instead of playing their game by their rules I would urge Minnesota gun owners to play a different game and make it very clear that all new gun control law will be openly disobeyed. Only through massive acts of civil disobedience will we be able to demonstrate the state’s lack of power and only through such demonstration will we be able to convince them to stop pushing for gun control less the general populace realize that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes and the entire power structure of the state collapses.

Never Talk to the Police

Although it has probably been covered ad nauseam I don’t think one can emphasis not talking to the police enough. The police are not your friends, they are not there to protect you, and they are not there to uphold the law. Their primary job is to expropriate wealth from the general populace for the state. Most of their time is spent handing out traffic and parking citations and arresting nonviolent individuals who are in possession of a verboten plant or chemical. When you talk to the police you must keep one fact in mind: their job is to put you in a cage. In addition to those facts there is another reason you shouldn’t talk to the police, it may land you in court:

Steve Bohnen wishes he had never called police.

What he says he believed was a good-faith effort to report a possible theft of a campaign sign and possible public safety hazard in the fall of 2010 has turned his world upside down.

He was sued twice by the man whom he reported and, after countersuing, now faces legal bills in excess of $500,000. The demands of the court process have pulled him away from work, and the stress has strained his family life.

[…]

He later filed three lawsuits naming Bohnen, Bohnen’s supporter Keith Mueller, the county, the city of Grant and others. In his lawsuits, he said that he had been unfairly targeted and that his rights were violated. He accused Bohnen and Mueller of conspiring with law enforcement to get him charged.

Mr. Bohnen called the police because he witnessed a possible theft. In return he was sued by the man her reported to the police and neither the police or the courts have offered any form of assistance with the lawsuits. Instead Mr. Bohnen has been left high and dry for doing what we’re all told to do: if you see something, say something. Another risk of talking to the police is the potential of being used for improperly reporting a suspect. If this happens you will receive no help from the police even though there are laws that supposedly protect those who report crimes to the police:

The Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association says that by allowing Bohnen to be sued for reporting an alleged crime, the courts are endangering the important relationship between citizens and law enforcement. The association points to state law that protects people who report potential crimes in good faith and has asked to participate in Bohnen’s appeal as a friend of the court.

When you deal with the state you’re dealing with an entity that wants to take your shit. It may bust into your home and physically take your shit or it may do it through court fees or other such nonsense. Either way you’re going to lose something when you interact with the state.

Perhaps I’m Becoming more Paranoid

Perhaps I’m becoming more paranoid in my old age but I find it suspicious that one day after Paymar announced that he wouldn’t pursue universal background checks a news story broke that there was a reported active shooting at a middle school in New Prague, Minnesota:

Authorities in New Prague responded this morning to a 911 call concerning an “active shooter” at the middle school, but a staff member later said everyone is safe and there is no danger inside the building.

“We are in the process of trying to clear all the schools at this time,” Scott County Sheriff Kevin Studnicka said at about 8:30 a.m. “We have not come across any injuries at this time.”

At about 9:30 a.m., administrators told families that classes in all schools were canceled for the day.

A School District official said the middle school was on a “code red” lockdown soon after what 911 police scanner chatter termed a “weapon complaint.”

Was the caller a student looking to cause some chaos or a gun control advocate hoping to reignite demands for gun control? I have no idea but the zealous manner in which gun control advocates danced in the blood after the Connecticut shooting leads me to believe they would stoop to almost any level to push their political agenda. My paranoia aside, this story also demonstrates the issue with knee jerk reactions. When the news first broke I saw numerous comments on Facebook saying there was an active shooting happening at the New Prague middle school. It wasn’t until I did some digging that I found out that the only source of this information was a new report saying somebody had called 911 about a weapons complaint. Taking a news story about a 911 call and conjuring up an active shooting is a massive departure from logic and demonstrates how quickly people can take a rather mundane report and turn it into a wild story.

Always take a moment to gather all the available facts before believing what you read or hear. Words that indicate potentiality are often dropped from second hand reports. When you read a friend’s post about an active shooting on Facebook take a moment to determine whether their comment is accurate or conjecture.

Minnesota House to Drop Universal Background Checks

It appears that the gun control advocates in Minnesota are setting their sights lower and lower:

The House Democrat pushing for broader restrictions to Minnesota gun laws has abandoned imposing universal background checks for firearm sales.

Rep. Michael Paymar of St. Paul says he’s switching to a plan that would expand background checks to sales at gun shows but not to private sales and transfers.

I’m not sure how Paymar plans to expand background checks to gun shows but not private sales since the only sales that don’t require a background check at gun shows are private ones. Trying to find the logic in a politician’s statement is harder than finding unicorns. Why the sudden change of heart? It appears that the change in heart, at least in part, is due to the alternative gun control bill that was offered by gun rights activists:

Paymar says he also plans to include many provisions from the alternate package of less-restrictive gun measures that would tighten the state’s current background check system, add to the parameters of who cannot legally own a gun and help county attorneys crack down on illegal gun owners.

It just goes to show that gun control advocates are more than happy to compromise so long as that compromise involves more gun control. I don’t know why Minnesota gun owners are expected to suffer more gun control, especially since none of us were involve in the tragedy that sparked the recent gun control debate, but suffer we apparently will.