Tag: Your Government Doesn’t Love You

Illegal Drone Usage

The United States government certainly has balls. Not only are they willing to violate the rights of American citizens but they’re also willing to violate the airspace of other nations:

The US has been sending unarmed drones over Mexico since February to gather intelligence on major drug cartels, the New York Times reports.

Yeah we’ll just fly some drones around Mexico since they probably can’t detect them or shoot them down. Now that I think about it we probably asked the Mexican government for permissions:

The missions had been kept secret because of Mexican legal restraints and sensitivities over sovereignty.

Or not. It’s OK though because now the Mexican government knows and they’re probably pissed as Hell…

US President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, formally agreed to continue the surveillance flights during talks in Washington on 3 March, which included a frank exchange of grievances, Mexican and US officials said.

Or not. Honestly if I were the ruler of a country and my neighbor started violating my airspace I’d be pissed regardless of the intentions. Hell if I had the capabilities I would track and shoot down the drones claiming they were foreign military assets violating my country’s airspace.

I guess we shouldn’t expect a government willing to violate the rights of its own citizens to respect the rights of other countries.

Reducing Oil Prices

Due to unrest in the Middle East the price of oil has skyrocketed as of late. Except much of the high oil prices aren’t due to unrest in the Middle East (which should be obvious by the fact we get most of our oil from Canada) but from government interference in the energy market. Although the entire article is a good read this part made me shake my head the most:

The SPR program is ridiculous: Oil companies invest in drilling oil wells. They pump the oil out of the ground. The federal government then uses tax dollars to purchase the oil and pump it into salt caverns 2,000–4,000 feet beneath the ground. If we want to use the oil, we will have to pump it out of the ground a second time. We pump oil out of the ground, pump it back into the ground, and then pump it out again. It would be more efficient to store the oil in its original underground formation and allow private oil companies to decide when to pump it out.

Only a government could come to the realization that pumping oil out of the ground only to put it back into the ground and pump it out again at a later date makes good sense. Of course this is all done at taxpayer expense to boot.

Overreaction Never Makes Sense

Germany seems to have an innate desire to prove that they are willing to overreact illogically to any situation. Case in point Germany has shutdown seven of its nuclear power plants in lieu of the situation in Japan. Of course Germany isn’t taking one small detail into consideration; Japan’s reactor is having problems because it was built on the fault line and experienced a 9.0 magnitude (not sure if that’s local or manner magnitude as nobody every fucking says) earthquake.

My head spins with Germany’s reaction. What were they thinking? I’m betting it was something along the lines of, “Mien Fuhrer, Japan’s nuclear reactor is experiencing a meltdown and the only logical thing we can do is shutdown our perfectly function and undamaged plants!” Brilliant! I’m sure somebody is getting a raise for that decision.

The only reason Japan’s plant is looking at potential meltdown is due to the earthquake and tsunami causing extensive damage. Yes natural disasters happen but when it happens elsewhere it doesn’t man countries a third of the way around the globe should react as if that natural disaster had hit them.

Obama’s Gun Speech

After two years of being in office I think Obama and I finally found something we can agree on. In his little gun control speech is said the following:

“I’m willing to bet,” he says, “that responsible, law-abiding gun owners agree that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few – dangerous criminals and fugitives, for example – from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.”

As a responsible law-abiding gun owner I can agree on this, we need to keep government from getting their hands on a gun in the first place. I firmly believe that the only way to stop the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from smuggling more guns into Mexico is to bar them, and any other government agent, legal access to firearms.

Now that I think about it maybe that’s not what Mr. Obama meant.

The Housing Market Bubble

As it the case with every market the government attempts to turn into a constant boom with the housing market ended up being a complete bust. Case in point, look at the number of vacant homes in Minneapolis. That’s a ton of homes sitting empty and it’s only one city.

I remember when the housing market was in its boom phase and everybody claimed there was no way to lose money on a home. People made a business out of buying a home, sprucing it up, and selling it for a profit. The problem is this boom created a ton of home, more homes that the market demanded. Supply and demand is a very real phenomenon and when the supply exceeds demand the cost of that supply goes down. The more the supply exceeds the demand the more the price of that supply plummets.

It’s such a simple concept that I’m at a loss to understand how our government doesn’t understand it. By pushing banks to make more home loans and guaranteeing these loans even to people who’s ability to pay was unquestionable not there the government helped create this massive failure in the housing market. On the upside if you’re looking for a home you can pick one up cheap. Then again you could also wait for the price to go down even more as it’s going to continue doing for a while.

Minneapolis Police Chief Dolan Seems To Think Police Have a Duty to Kill

Somehow the anti-gunners came strolling through my neck of the woods and I completely missed it. Mayors Against Illegal All Guns strolled through Minneapolis with their big truck. Either way Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan has signed on to demand civilian ownership of standard capacity magazines:

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan spoke out Friday in support of federal legislation that would ban ammunition magazines that hold a large number of bullets.

“Law enforcement should not be outgunned by criminals: it’s just common sense,” Dolan said Friday, according to remarks prepared in advance for an event to draw attention to loopholes in the nation’s gun background check system.

Wait,the police, who have access to fully automatic rifles, body armor, urban assault vehicles, and a legal authority to use force, are somehow outgunned by criminals who have access to standard capacity magazines? What? That makes no fucking sense.

You know what Mr. Dolan as a law abiding person I would like to not be outgunned by criminals. Can I have a machine gun, some body armor, an urban assault vehicle, and a legal authority to use force? Hell I’ll just settle for being able to continue purchasing standard OEM equipment magazines for my firearms.

It seems Mr. Dolan buys the anti-gunner’s party line that the only reason standard capacity magazines exist is to kill and many people as possible in a short span of time. He’s advocating for the prohibition of civilian purchasing of these magazines yet is advocating no such prohibition for the police force. It would seem Mr. Dolan believes it’s the duty of police officers to kill as many people as possible in a short span of time.

If I lived in Minneapolis I think I’d want a Police Chief who had a slightly less grim view on what the duty of a police officer is.

Since this attempted ban is being pushed by Mayors Against All Guns I think it’s important to remember which Minnesota mayors are members of this atrocious group. According to their website (not directly linked to due to a policy of not linking to anti-gun groups but can be copy and pasted: http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/members/members.shtml) the following Minnesota mayors are members of Bloomberg’s Posse:

Mayor Don Ness of Duluth, MN
Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis, MN
Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul, MN

These people are against your right to defend yourself and should be elected out of office. Hell if you can recall a mayor it would be a good idea to recall these three bozos.

Another Reason For the Right to Bear Arms

The right to keep and bear arms doesn’t only allow us means to protect ourselves from other people but it also helps ensure something like this doesn’t happen here:

Police in Saudi Arabia have opened fire to disperse protesters in the eastern city of Qatif, a day before planned countrywide anti-government protests.

Witnesses said police also beat demonstrators with batons injuring at least three people.

When the government has a monopoly on arms the citizenry are at their mercy. Peaceful protests are great right up to the point where the government decides to start shooting the protesters. This is the point where peaceful protests no longer work and the need to take up arms to defend yourself against the government arise.

As it sits the chances of something like this occurring here are much lower as the government realizes many American citizens can shoot back. This mutually assured destruction helps keep things civil. To quote a Heinlein novel, “An armed society is a peaceful society.”

More Government Officials Running Guns

Bad news for several public officials in Columbus, New Mexico. It seems their plot to run guns into Mexico has been discovered:

The police chief, the mayor and a local politician of a small town on the American side of the US-Mexico border have been charged with gun running.

Prosecutors say the officials from Columbus, New Mexico, bought some 200 guns which they allegedly planned to sell to drug cartels in Mexico.

Explain to me again how enacting laws to restrict the rights of American citizens is going to stem the flow of guns into Mexico? It doesn’t seem that plan of action is going to work so well when it’s the government smuggling the guns. Maybe we should enact laws restricting access to firearms but the government instead.

Government Increasing the Cost of Medicine Again

The only thing government is really good at is fucking over the citizens under its control. Take for example the health care industry. In the United States health care costs are through the roof and it’s thanks to government intervention. I’ve come across yet another example of government interference in the health care market causing an increase in costs:

But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE’-Nah). The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get.

The result? Not surprisingly the cost of Makena went from $10.00 to $1,500.00. I know little about the drug but apparently it requires multiple injections (roughly 20 since the article says it will cost $30,000 with the new pricing scheme). That means the total cost will go from roughly $200.00 to $30,000.00 thanks to the government granting a monopoly on the medication to a single company.

Monopolies are not naturally occurring things. In almost every care of a monopoly cropping up it has been due to government regulations either outright granting the monopoly or putting restrictions on the market in such a way to grant a defacto monopoly (such as expensive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) trials keeping new companies out of the pharmaceuticals industry). Even though government claims they are needed to protect us from monopolies the reality is monopoly protection is yet another example of a government created problem that the government claims they didn’t make but are needed to fix.

The ATF Have Been Running Guns Since 2008

Man the hole keeps getting deeper for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms an Explosives (ATF). First they are caught providing guns to Mexican drug cartels and now documents have surfaced that the ATF has been doing this since 2008:

Multiple sources now tell CBS News the questionable tactics were used in more than one operation, and date back as far as 2008 in the Tucson area. One case was called “Wide Receiver.”

Sources tell CBS News licensed gun dealers often wanted no part of selling to suspicious characters who could be supplying the cartels.

But, sources say, ATF enlisted the gun dealers as paid Confidential Informants and encouraged them to sell even more.

“ATF has asked me to assist in an official investigation,” reads one agreement.

Gun salesmen closed the deals, and ATF watched and listened with recording devices.

Your tax dollars and government at work. It angers me to no end having to support an organization that is not only trying to restrict my rights but is also providing criminals with firearms while they claim they prevent exactly that. I think it’s obvious to anybody with cognitive capabilities that the ATF needs to be abolished.