Tag: Your Government Doesn’t Love You

St. Paul Police Steal a Gun

Here’s an interesting story involving a carry permit holder getting his gun stolen from him by the St. Paul police:

Thomas Hackbarth, 58, was stopped in his car on Nov. 16 after a security guard saw him with a gun in the parking lot about 5 p.m., an hour after the clinic closed. Police ordered him out of his car at gunpoint and handcuffed and questioned him before taking his gun and letting him go.

Hackbarth, who has a conceal and carry permit, picked up his gun from police on Tuesday. He was not arrested or charged, and police have closed the case, said police spokesman Andy Skoogman.

Basically the St. Paul police responded to a “man with a gun” call. That part made sense but the fact that they stole is gun from him without cause is appalling. The key here is they didn’t charge him, they didn’t arrest him, they just confiscated his firearm and left. Unless somebody is being charged with a crime the police have no right in confiscating property of a private citizen.

Stories like this are why I carry concealed, really well concealed. My gun sits in an inside the waistband holster with a shirt tucked in around it. Of course being this is a Red Star article they had to throw in a bit of bias:

Hackbarth said that he always carries his fully loaded gun, and understands why the security guard was alarmed.

Emphasis mine. The wording there is meant to create fear in the reader that a man not only had a gun, not only was it loaded, but it was fully loaded. For fuck sake the man was carrying a revolver, fully loaded means six rounds in most cases. Is he supposed to carry it partially loaded? Maybe he should play Russian roulette with an attacker. And people wonder why I call the Star Tribune the Red Star.

Did I mention Mr. Hackbarth is a state representative? I would love to see more representatives with carry permits who actively carry, good on him. Of course if I were him I’d also take action against the St. Paul police department for putting my life in danger by confiscating my means of self-defense without cause.

Incorrect Diagnosis

It seems that 911 is getting with the times so to speak as the FCC is updating the 911 system to handle text messages. I can see it now we can have quality texts such as:

OMG SUM DOOD SHOOTIN DA SKOOL, SEE PIGS

I’m guessing a dispatcher will be wasting more time trying to decipher most peoples’ text messages than sending actual help to an emergency. What really puts the icing on the cake for this story though is the reason the FCC is updating the 911 system:

“The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences,” the release said. “During the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting, students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 9-1-1 that local dispatchers never received. If these messages had gone through, first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with firsthand intelligence about the life-threatening situation that was unfolding.”

That’s an incorrect diagnosis if I’ve ever read one. The problem with Virginia Tech was the fact there was a gunman walking around killing people. There aren’t a lot of solutions prevent such a case, you can only strive to make the situation end quickly. I highly doubt being able to receive text messages would have allow the police to arrive any faster. What would have had potential to end the situation faster would be to allowed students and faculty to legally carry their firearms on campus. Even to this day if a student or faculty member has a carry permit they are not allowed to carry at Virginia Tech. This limitation means any guy walking around shooting people on campus has several minutes at the last until the police are able to arrive.

If the FCC wants to limit the impact of these types of situations they should be placing their support behind a law to abolish the concept of the “gun-free zone.” Obviously that’s not the FCC’s area of jurisdiction so it’s best if they just stay out of it all together but it’s the only real solution to the problem they’re claiming to address at the moment.

Everything You Need to Know About the Recent TSA Fiasco

With all the shit flying about the recent TSA molestation of airliner customers it’s become very difficult to keep up with events as they unfold. Thankfully Bruce Schneier has a really good summary covering pretty much everything. Read it.

Secretary of Transportation Looking to Require Cell Phone Jammers in Automobiles

Once before I’ve mentioned Ray LaHood on this site. LaHood is the Secretary of Transportation and is on a crusade to abolish all use of cellular phone technology in automobiles. To further this crusade he’s made mention of requiring automobile manufactures to equipment their vehicles with cell phone jamming technology.

LaHood seems to believe that cell phone use has cause a dramatic increase in automobile accidents over the years which I’ve previously research and found not to be the case. The only thing LaHood is chasing is a red herring. Automobile accidents have actually been on a slight decline since cell phone technology has become more popular which leads me to believe cell phone usage has had no negative impact on the rate of automobile accidents. I’m still of the theory that shitty drivers are shitty drivers no matter what laws and regulations you put into place. Yes you can jam a cell phone but you can’t stop people from reading a book, doing their make up, eating, or any thing else from a long list of potential distractions.

I wonder if LaHood has any investments in a company that produces cell phone jamming technology or if he’s simply a fucking moron.

The Inconsistency of the ATF

Us gunnies spend a lot of time bitching about the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (AFT). We don’t bitch about the ATF because of their mandate so much as their inconsistency. For instance if I own a handgun it’s perfectly OK. The second I attach a vertical foregrip to the pistol’s front rail it becomes an Any Other Weapon (AOW) and falls under the regulations put forth in the National Firearms Act. Another case of inconsistency are rulings involving pistol grip shotguns. What is put forth in that link is a great article demonstrating the fact the ATF don’t really know what the fuck they’re doing and thus consistency isn’t their strong point.

Fly the Unfriendly Accusation Skies

There are few letters that can be put together to cause massive rage in almost every person in the United States. One of those precious few seemingly innocuous strings of letters is TSA (Transportation Security Administration). Employees of the TSA do it all, they look at naked picture of you and your children, they feel up your junk, and they plant white powder in your luggage and threaten to arrest you for cocaine possession.

Yes, they do all of this and offer no additional security to fliers. TSA offers security theater, not actual security. The real problem is you’re giving a bunch of people a badge and some authority. With certain types of people this is a very bad idea because it gives them power trips. Frankly once we have an agency so corrupt that one of their employees has decided to fuck with an airline passenger by placing a substance that looks like cocaine on their person it’s time for some dismantlement.

Hey President Calderon I Have a Solution

It seems the President of Mexico is once again trying to tell us what to do:

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has told the BBC the US should do more to reduce the demand for drugs that is fuelling violence in Mexico.

You want us to do something to reduce the demand for drugs? Sure thing we’ll legalize it all and end the war on drugs. Much like Portugal we should see a drop in drug related violence once they’re legitimized. Of course that’s not acceptable:

Mr Calderon and his counterparts from Colombia and Costa Rica, Juan Manuel Santos and Laura Chinchilla, said legalisation of cannabis in California would send a contradictory message.

God damn it! We offer a solution and you spit on it. What the fuck are we supposed to do?

“It is confusing for our people to see that while we have lost lives and we invest vast resources in the drug war, in the consumer countries they promote proposals like the Californian referendum to legalise the production, the sale and the consumption of marijuana,” said Mr Santos.

I understand that potential freedom and liberty may be confusing to you as presidential equivalent of Columbia but trust me it works. You’d be surprised how popular the idea of liberty really is.

He reiterated his long-standing view that the problem of organised crime would remain as long as the US remained the biggest consumer of drugs in the world.

If it’s no longer criminals to grow, possess, and use the stuff then organized crime will no longer profit from it. Once organized crime no longer profits from it their power base will be knocked out and thus become much less of a problem. A similar thing happened when we ended prohibition in this country many decades ago. But no story about the troubles of Mexico would be complete without the mention of the Mexican gun canard:

Obama administration officials have acknowledged that the US shares responsibility for the drug violence, on account of the demand for illegal drugs and its inability to stop weapons flowing south.

I will give the BBC one thing though, they usually do a good job of covering both sides of a story:

However, US gun rights groups question whether the US is the source for the vast majority of the illegal guns turning up in Mexico.

The majority of guns confiscated by Mexico and submitted to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) for tracing do originate in the US.

However, a large number of seized weapons are not sent for tracing.

There is your reason so many guns submitted for tracing are found to originate in the US, not many guns are being submitted. For instance there really is no point is submitting a fully automatic AK-47 to the US for tracing being finding such weapons for a reasonable price (as any such weapon made after 1968 1986 is illegal) is practically impossible.

EDIT 2010-10-27 21:05: Had the wrong date posted. It’s corrected now thanks to Jeff.

The Fallacy of Socialism

Here’s a shocker for you, I don’t like socialism. In fact I’d go so far as to say socialism is one of the more dangerous ideologies that the human race has ever spawned. My main problem with socialism is the fact it can only work if you use violence against the populace.

Socialism is the system of government where the state controls all means of production. The idea sounds all nice and flowery on the surface. The state ensures everybody has a job, home, food, access to health care, etc. In order to provide these services the state must also control society. For instance in order to ensure there is enough food for everybody the state will decide on the number of farmers required to grow enough food.

Ultimately the claimed desire of socialism is to ensure everybody is treated equally in every regard. The problem comes when equal really means the lowest common denominator. I’m not a very eloquent writer but Eugen Richter was. I have a great book for you to read called Pictures of a Socialistic Future. First let me tell you that it’s free from the link I provided (legally even) and short. Second let me tell you it’s also very disturbing.

The book is a fictional diary written by a man who just saw his country turn into a socialist nation. At first the author (of the fictional journal, not the book) is all for it and declares the greatness of socialism. Of course reality comes in as the state exacts more and more control over the populace to make their great system work. People are required to draw for jobs via a lottery because it’s the only fair way to give out jobs. Although work weeks are originally set very low the state constantly has to increase the hours because their country is producing less and thus are running up a trade deficit. Due to people fleeing the state closes the borders off because every person who leaves is one less laborer.

It’s a good book and although it was written as fiction you’ll notice a lot of similarities between what happens in the book’s fictional Germany and what happened on the Soviet side of Germany after World War II. This is even more significant since the book was first translated to English in 1893 meaning Mr. Richter did a good job at predicting what a socialist country would eventually turn into. If you believe socialism can work I’d advise you to read this book and compare it to what happened in Red Germany. After that please try to tell me with a straight face that socialism can work.

Education Spending

The Obamessiah is calling for hiring 10,000 more teachers in order to bolster math and science grades in school. Of course this doesn’t actually add up as pointed out over at Random Nuclear Strikes. Take a look at some charts.

The first chart shows the number of public school employees versus the number of students enrolled since 1970. Notice something odd there? The second chart is an adjusted for inflation (thanks Federal Reserve) display of the cost of K-12 public education versus the percentage change in achievements of 17 year-old students. Once again something is amiss there.

It seems simply throwing money at the problem isn’t helping. I know our current administration believes strongly that if something isn’t working you just have to do it again only harder but that doesn’t actually work. And interesting book I’m reading through right now (which is available for free in PDF form) is The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America. The book goes through the history of education in America and indicates our country’s problems in academia seems to stem back to the turn of the century. The main issue is our country’s education system used to cherish education for education’s sake, now we do workforce training and teach kids to do as they’re told because they’re told to do so.

Cell Phones and Auto Accidents

A story today is saying the United States Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is pushing for a complete ban on cell phone usage while driving. This includes standard cell phone talking, texting, and the use of hand-free systems. He claims people are distracted by all of these things and it is leading to accidents.

Personally I’m always dubious of what politicians say so I’ve been looking into the matter. It’s pretty universally accepted that cell phone usage has been increasing exponentially for the last decade and a half. I’m not one to just take generally accepted ideas so I started digging for facts. CTIA has been keeping statistics on the number of cellular phone subscribers since 1985 [Waring: PDF]. Since 1985 the number of cell phone subscribers has went from 203,600 (which surprised me there were that many back in ’85) to 276,610,580 in 2009. In roughly two and a half decades we’ve literally went from hundreds of thousands of cell phone subscribers to hundreds of millions. I’d call that an exponential increase.

If Mr. LaHood’s claims are accurate and the ever increasing amount of distraction in automobiles are causing accidents there should be a noticeable increase in the number of accidents since 1985. This is where the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) comes into play (I sources them in my last post). In their 2008 report [Waring: PDF] page 14 lists the historical data of crashes by crash severity. The main thing I was concerned about was the total number of automobile accidents per year.

Like I said if cell phone usage has been causing automobile accidents it should be noted on the total number of accidents yearly. The data published by the NHTSA goes from 1988 to 2008 which is what we’ll concern ourselves with. So how much have automobile accidents increased? Here’s the funny thing, they haven’t. In fact the number of accidents has been on a slight downward trend since 1988.

In 1988 the total number of automobile accidents was 6,887,000, in 1990 it was 6,471,000, in 1995 it was 6,699,000, in 2000 it was 6,394,000, in 2005 it was 6,159,000, and finally in 2008 it was 5,811,000. It seems the only correlation that exists between the increase in cell phone subscribers and automobile accidents is a slight downward trend (which I’m absolutely not implying is causality).

Inevitably this is where somebody will point out the reason for the downward trend are laws banning cell phone usages while driving. The problem is that isn’t true. From what I’ve been able to find the first law banning cell phone usage while driving was enacted in New York in 2001. The downward trend in automobile accidents has been going on since the late ’80’s at the very least. If the downward trend was occurring before the first law banning cell phone usage while driving was enacted that indicate a third party reason. In fact a recent study confirms exactly what I’m saying.

Cell phone penetration seems to have no effect on the number of automobile accidents. I would wager that some people are just bad drivers. Cell phones don’t offer these people a distraction where there wasn’t one before, they just offer a different type of distraction. Before the popular use of cell phones how many times did you see somebody driving while applying makeup, brushing their teeth, shaving, reading, or some other such stupidity? Some people just want to be distracted and enacting laws barring the usage of cell phones while driving isn’t going to correct anything.

Please don’t read this and think I’m condoning texting while driving because I’m not. Texting while driving is just stupid and you must remove your eyes from the road. I just don’t think we need another law on the books to ban texting while driving, reckless driving laws already handle the problem. Especially considering the prevalent inclusion of GPS navigation systems on cell phones. What you might view as somebody reading an e-mail to texting could very well just be them reading a map and navigating. If you really want to remove all potential distractions from drivers you will have to ban GPS, radios, gauges (because looking at your heat gauge means you’re not look at the road), and passengers. Basically we all have to drive a single seat car with absolutely no accessories. Of course due to massive boredom we’ll probably have more people falling asleep at the wheel and thus increase the number of accidents.

I’m perfectly OK with the use of hands free system while driving as it’s no different than holding a conversation with your passenger and talking on your phone while driving without a hands-free system is dependent on the person doing it. Once again reckless driving laws already take care of the problem of bad and dangerous drivers.

The bottom line is I wish people would stop blaming cell phone usage for an increase in the number of accidents because there is no increase. Blame bad drivers for being bad drivers.