Colorado Gun Law - Recalls

Sen Morse is asking the state supreme court to declare parts of the state constitution unconstitutional in an effort to beat the recall by getting it called off.

Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo face separate recall elections in their districts on Sept. 10. Voters will be asked whether the lawmakers should be recalled and which candidate should succeed them.
The Colorado constitution requires voters to vote "yes" or "no" on the recall question in order to have their vote for a successor be counted, but that provision could be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution, said Attorney General John Suthers.
He said a nearly identical provision in the California state constitution was declared unconstitutional during the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

Well, who knows. He sounds mighty nervous in any case.

The Future Of Transportation - Trikes

Of all the one-off vehicles that have come down the pike recently, each promising to be more "green" than the next, here's one that's actually still here. The Elio 3-wheeler has the advantage of being gasoline powered, so no technological hurdles, and it qualifies as a motorcycle, so fewer regulatory problems.

The outfit will be showing their car in the Denver area beginning this week:

Wednesday, August 28th:  Park Meadows Mall, Lone Tree, CO from 1-7pm

Thursday, August 29th: Flat Iron Crossing Mall, Broomfield, CO from 1-6pm (plus the concert after!)

Friday August 30th:  Cherry Creek Mall, Denver - inside - from 10am -9pm

Monday September 2- The Taste of Colorado!  We will be in Denver again at 1600 Broadway #610

Their website is being pretty cagy about the availability of test drives. I gather that if there are any they will be severely limited.

Gun Fun - Basic Pistol II

In an added note, I had sent SIL off to her basic pistol class with D'wifes Ruger after giving her the basics of handling and operation of the gun. She loaded one of the mags for practice, and I switched out the loaded one for the empty one. She left with both mags and put the loaded one "in a safe place" pending actually shooting.

Of course you know what "in a safe place" means. Time to panic. I believe that right now I'd sooner find a complete set of dentures for a duck-billed platypus at a garage sale before I'd find another magazine for a Ruger Mk 2 around here.

She found it this morning just before leaving, in a safe place where her dog wouldn't find it.. The shooting part will be outdoors at the instructors property in Fairplay beginning at 10 AM. It's 8:30 and she has 1-1/2 hours to get there. She's been known to spend 30 minutes on the phone explaining that she can't talk any longer because she needs to get going to her next appointment. Google suggests that the drive time is 1 hr, 32 minutes.

She also noted that one of the participants in her basic pistol class already had a CCW and had never fired the gun she brought to the class. This struck both of us as more than a little odd.

If Engineers Built Bridges...

...the way legislators wrote laws, the United States would end at the first creek west of Plymouth Rock.

There will be a ballot question in Lafayette CO. in November which was originally thought to ban fraccing within the city limits. It states that no oil or gas will be transported in pipelines within the city limits.

Presumably it would be legal to have a propane tank outside your home, but a tap into a natural gas line would be a no-no, requiring Exell Energy to turn off the natural gas supply to the entire city.

I suppose that if this bit of Luddite tomfoolery passes, the city council will rise to the occasion and quickly pass an exemption for Exell to pump gas into the town for use by the residents while forbidding the transport of gas out of town for use by the rest of us.

Transportation - Fun Stuff

While out burning up the bike trails today I passed a fellow on a skateboard being pulled along right smartly by a large Husky. He agreed that this was the best way to walk the dog he had come up with yet, as long as the dog wanted to go the same way he did.

No, my phone does not have a camera in it.

Transportation - Costs

Bankrate.com has a chart showing the cost of owning a car in the various states. Included are maintenance, Taxes, fuel, and insurance. These are probably average figures and I didn't dig for great detail. Your mileage will certainly vary. Interesting to note Colorado is 17th highest on the list. Figuring promenently is the taxes and fees department which is among the highest in the nation.

This relates to my former state rep, Joe Rice, who doubled our registration fees in an effort to sustain the monorail! light rail boondoggle. Without his help in the tax department, Colorado would be in the bottom 10 for costs of owning a vehicle.

Thanks Joe!

The Future Of Agriculture - Dehydrated Water

Yes, you heard that right, dehydrated water. Just add water of course. Found here at Political Calculations, is a piece on the stuff which is a polymer similar to what's put into diapers to absorb water. It seems that once the water is absorbed, plant roots can extract it. The process would be to plough some of this into otherwise arid soil. What little rain or irrigation would be available is held by the polymer in the tilled layer and the water is extracted as needed by the plants.

One supposes that water soluble chemicals like pesticides and weed killers when applied would be picked up by the polymer as part of the water and thus not be carried into the ground water. That would be good. One also wonders what the effect of moving an aquifer from well below the surface to the near surface would be on the existing aquifer.

Sounds like a potential solution to the problem of my dead back yard. I wonder what it costs?

Update: Even better, it's already on the market.See comments.

Soil Moist™ Polymer, 8-lb. Granular, 8 lb, $62.50.

Complete Biodegradable Granular Polymer Waters Your Plants When They Need It!

This water management system can save you money and time. Lasting for up to five years, Granular Polymer is a safe non-toxic polymer that will absorb over 200 times its weight in water. As the surrounding soil dries, the polymer releases the absorbed water making it available to the plant. The polymer will automatically re-swell during the next rain or irrigation. Granular Polymer mixes right in the soil for crops or trees. 8-lb. container.

Unemployment

You can't actually believe all the statistics regarding unemployment any more as they have been jiggered to make politicians look good since the great depression. Still, Gallup is reporting a 1.2% jump in unemployment from 7.7% to 8.9% over the last 30 days. This seems like a mighty big number

There are multiple possible reasons for this. One is that General Motors finally went terminally broke and canned everyone. This would have made the news.

Another is that all the propaganda about the Summer Of Recovery reached the discouraged workers and brought them out from whatever rocks they've been hiding under to look for work. It could happen. The 5th time might well be the charm.

Could also be the impact of Obamacare which is causing employers everywhere to reduce payrolls and switch people from full time to part time.

That would be about 1.85 million new unemployed suddenly appearing. Wonder where they came from?

Beer Summit

The Univ of Colorado is experimenting with hiring an actual conservative. That's right, and not just someone politically to the right of Ted Kennedy either.  He's Steven Hayward, and he's having a couple of meetups to see if he really is the only Republican in Boulder County like the Dean told him when he was hired.

One up in Boulder at the Bohemien Biergarten and another at a location to be named later in Lakewood.

No doubt the Daily Camera will be there hoping to get a picture of Dr. Hayward sitting alone in the BB, or alternatively to get early coverage of the Putsch to be staged from the Bierhall. We will probably have to explain to him that only Socialists do that sort of thing. He'll be so disappointed.

It's this Saturday from 4 – 6 pm at the Bohemian Biergarten at 2017 13th Street in downtown Boulder.

Anybody interested?

60 Is The New 40

Took down 3 walnut trees yesterday, reduced them to manageable sizes, loaded then onto a friends pickup, and waved them good bye.

My back is explaining to me about how the title of this post is the biggest bald-faced lie ever to come down the pike.

I did learn, however, that chainsaw chains are generic except for length so you can put a Brand X chain on a Brand Z saw. One advisory: A 14" saw might use any of 3 different lengths of chain. The one you need will be the one not commonly stocked.

Constitutional Amendments

Mark Levin has a book out proposing some 11 constitutional amendments presumably "to insure a more perfect union" or some such. Most of these ideas are good ones, but there are a few problems that I can see from my perspective as a constitutional scholar*. The link is an interview and overview discussion of the suggested amendments. Pretty good read.

Visit the link and read through the interview. The amendments are not spelled out in detail, as that would impact his book sales, but are described in general.

1. Term limits for everybody. Senators, Representatives, and Supreme court judges.
    Observation: This would probably do a lot of good, but getting the rats to vote on their own poison isn't going to happen.

2. Repeal the 17th amendment.
    Observation: Great idea. Senators would go back to being selected by their state legislators. Of course this would mean that only 10 or 15 out of 100 would ever lose their jobs over a six-year period, but the threat would be just like that of amendment 1.

3. To allow a super majority of the Congress to override the Supreme Court.
  Observation: If a law is genuinely unconstitutional, it should be struck down. Period. If the congress doesn't like that, then they can write another one and word it differently.

4. Spending and taxation limits.
  Observation: TABOR for the feds. This is possibly the best idea of the lot. Spending limited to 17.5% of GDP and the highest tax rate to be 15% of income. If this is couples with a 15% limit on business and other revenue sources as well, it would really get the economy going. Just remember: The effective tax rate on businesses is zero. All expenses, including taxation are passed on to the customers.

5. Moves tax day to the last business day prior to the national elections.
  Observation: Would give the rats some incentive to cut spending rather than produce pork. Problem is that the national budget needs to be written based on revenues received. Paying taxes on 2010 income, for example, in November of 2011, for use in 2012 seems a bit disconnected. It would probably make budgeting more predictable though.

6. Requiring reauthorization of everything called "Department of..." every 3 years.
  Observation: Yes, it's possible that the Department of Defense could be completely defunded, but probably unlikely. More likely would be a continuing resolution to keep everything just as it is. This would be a voice vote following much posturing before the cameras, thus providing campaign footage and a complete lack of traceability for the pols.

7. Redefinition of the Commerce Clause.
  Observation: Long overdue. The problem is that it limits the Fed Govs ability to micromanage everything. This is why you want it. This is why the Fed Gov isn't about to give it up.

8. Adds regulatory takings to the takings clause.
  Observation: Great idea. Right now the Feds can declare your property to be a wetland or habitat for an endangered slime mold and prevent you from ever doing anything with it without having to compensate you for the loss.

9. Allows the states to propose Constitutional amendments.
  Observation: The proposals would come from the legislatures rather than from popular votes of the citizens. Requires 2/3 of the states to enact rather than the current 3/4. Given amendment 2, this would be pretty much the same as a proposal from the Senate.

10. States would over ride Federal law with a 3/5 vote.
  Observation: Being no fan of the Feds, I'd even go for a simple majority.

11. Requires photo ID be obtained before allowing anyone to vote.
  Observation: This would extend to state and local elections. It wouldn't eliminate vote fraud, but it might slow it down.

* The standards for being a constitutional scholar have been drastically devalued. I've read most of it and lived under it for about 1/4 of its total lifetime. I've also read scholarly writings from people who actually went to school for this. As such, I feel I'm at least as entitled to the title as say the President.

Egypt

P.J. O'Rourke once visited Egypt to try to understand why the denizens of the middle east seem to behave irrationally. He flew in to Cairo, traveled to the big hotel right next to the pyramids. went to the bar, got a drink, turned on his stool to view the grandeur of the great pyramids, just outside the window, and realized "These people have always been crazy!".

Here is a report of a study that shows that Muslims are pretty much universally happier in non-Islamic states than in Islamic republics. Big deal. Everybody is happier in non-Muslim countries.

Here is another report that describes Egyptian citizens using Muslim Brotherhood protesters for target practice. The report is mixed in with another one talking about Korea, Japan, and China. Scroll down a bit to get to the Egyptian part. I find this encouraging in that the citizens of Egypt are rejecting Islamic exterrmism in the most emphatic manner possible. There are two ways this could get better.

In Mexico, during their revolution, the Catholic church sided with the monarchy. Siding with the status quo is what the church traditionally does, so no real surprise there. Following the revolution, the nationalists did not forget this, and made sure the Church didn't either, severely restricting the churches ability to influence politics. Should the same thing happen in Egypt, the situation would be much improved. Nothing like executing a few troublesome holy men to cool the ardor of the rest. The military is currently looking to ban the MB, which had been done in the past and is done in several middle eastern countries already.

Best case of course would be to ban the practice of Islam completely. Despite all the good arguments in favor of this, it seems unlikely to happen. Oh well.

Ethanol

Occasionally the government steps up and demonstrates its ability to not just shoot itself in the foot, but to do so with the selector switch on full auto. Effective August 1, President O'Bungler has issued an executive order banning the sale of Ammonium Nitrate in this country.

Obama issued an Executive order on August 1, 2013 that will effectively ban Ammonium Nitrate in the USA. It will become too expensive and create too much possible civil and criminal liability to manufacture, store, or transport it.

While it is true that AN is a primary component in several explosives, it is also true that AN is a primary component of practically all farm products including the grains fed to meat animals. As an aside, notice that some 40% of the nations corn crop is now dedicated to producing ethanol which by law must be mixed into your gasoline, lest we become overly dependent on Arab oil for our cars. Already it is required that some 2M gallons of the moonshine mixed into our gas must come from cellulostic sources, a sop to the drain on food and feed that the current law imposes. Any refinery not mixing the required minimums from this source is penalized by requiring them to buy a tax credit, currently valued at about $1/gallon of 'shine not used. This adds about a dime to the price of a gallon of gas at the pump.

Current total national production of cellulostic ethanol is 20,000 gallons/year. Not to worry, the 1.98M gallon shortfall will be paid for by the peasants. Now imagine the hit to corn (and everything else) production the proposed ban on fertilizer will have:

Food and fuel prices will skyrocket because Ammonium Nitrate forms the basis for almost all nitrogen in granular fertilizers used in American farming. There are no cost and ease of manufacture/use equivalents for ammonium nitrate. Supply and demand economics are going to be the harsh lesson of the day. Crop yields will go down. Corn is the basis for the American food supply and the fuel additive ethanol. A.N. is critical in corn production.

Hope everyone is ready for $12/gallon gasoline and $20 a box corn flakes.

Read the whole sad story here at CSIA foundation.

Gun Fun - Steampunk

Pull that Webly-Vickers 50-70 on me will you? Well take this you cad!

Easily sufficient to strike fear into the heart of the dastardly Baron von Twogoggles, or anyone else within 50 yards in any direction, here we have a prototype of a Martini-Henry grenade launcher, a 1916 M79.

The coil spring recoil buffer is certainly clever. It's giving me ideas.

The whole history, complete with a lengthy list of its progenitors is here on the Firearms Blog.

Gun Fun - Why Not?

Broney seems to be the latest sign of the end of Western Civilization as we know it so what better calling that to get out there and help fend it off.

In the near future, historians will struggle to locate the precise moment when civilization’s wheels finally, irretrievably came off. By then, there will have been too many such moments to pinpoint one with any certainty. But I’ll mark the day as having occurred on a recent August weekend when, standing in the concourse of the Baltimore Convention Center, I watch grown men with problem skin and five o’clock shadows prance around in pony ears, rainbow manes, and braided tails lashed to their belt-loops, doling out “free hugs,” starting “fun! fun! fun!” chants, and spontaneously breaking into song. “Give me a bro hoof,” says one, trying to knuckle-bump me. It’s what you might imagine heaven to be like, if your idea of heaven is hell.

Grown men or at least boys who should know better turning themselves into this:

So the obvious question arises: What caliber for Bronies?

My position is that non-serious game calls for non-serious ammo. I vote for 12 ga low brass game loads filled with the old reliable rock salt.