Gun Law

Kansas has passed legislation legitimizing firearm suppressors:

Topeka — The Kansas Legislature has approved a bill that would allow the use of silencers for hunting, fishing and fur harvesting.

Not everyone approves, and some question the fiddling details:

SynjynSmythe (anonymous) says…

Please tell me how one fishes with a silencer?

I was too late to suggest that fishing from a stocked barrel might be an accepted sort of thing in Kansas, after all, who knows what strange rituals the natives may practice there. The instant quick answer:

SnakeFist (anonymous) replies…

Without a silencer, the dynamite would make an awful racket.

But of course.

Gun Fun 8

Got the results of the IDPA match we held at the club. My shooting was swell. Quite good, even. Evidently I need to oil the wheels on my walker and push it a bit harder because my times sucked.

The Climate Game

Here's how the climate game is played in Washington. First, what do you think of the proposed Cap and Tax legislation that would put a big tax on all use of fossil fuels. This means your gasoline, as well as heating oil, natural gas, and the coal your utility burns to produce your electricity. This also trickles into your food bill, ant the cost of anything you buy that requires transportation, in other words, everything.

Most people oppose this. The actual legislation failed in the face of massive public disapproval coupled with the politicians desire to hold on to their phony-baloney jobs.

Where there's a will to raise taxes, there's a way, and the administration is having the EPA do its dirty work by imposing "fees" on producers of carbon-based fuels, in the interest of preventing global warming, or as is now in vogue, "climate change".

Republicans have proposed an amendment to the Small Business Innovation Research bill that would forbid the EPA from getting involved in the climate hysteria business, and a lot of people favor this. To get around having to support the people, Sen. Rockefeller has put foreword a similar, but completely toothless version of the same amendment so the Dems can vote for his bill, then tell the folks back home that they favored limiting the EPA, but the nasty Repubs wouldn't let them, so cap and tax became law in spite of their efforts.

Let your Senator know that you're not fooled; A vote for the Rockefeller amendment is a vote for Cap and Tax.

Testing, 1, 2, 3,...

The president has come out against standardized testing in schools, saying that this makes school "boring". Coming from someone who has flunked every test he faced since taking office, this position is unsurprising.

H/T Drudge for the pointer

It's A Strange, Strange World We Live in, Master Jack.

Tim Blair noticed, and yes, doesn't it strike anyone as just a bit strange that the loudest, most violent protesters in England, carping about the reductions in the government, are the anarchists?

I mean, shouldn't they be for the reductions?

Blogger Bash

1. Next month this blog will be 3 years old, so let's have a blogger bash.

2. We haven't had a blogger bash in some time now, so let's have one.

3. Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu! So let's have a bash!

The last one I organized was at the Old Mill in Littleton which was well received. The Jury Room at Pint's Pub has been suggested as well as Hanson's Grill and Tavern at Pearl and Louisiana. The Jury Room seats 12, which should be big enough unless our ranks have grown. Never been to Hanson's. Maybe some scouting is in order.

Date: Near the end of April? Suggestions?

Voting is open via comments.

Gun Fun 7

Mr. Completely is sponsoring the first e-postal match this year, called "The Mess". This features a target with multiple bulls eyes and negative point zones.
Notice how by shifting an otherwise perfectly good group no more than 1/2" you can change your score from 3 digits to one. Also the rules state that if your round impinges two or more zones, the shot is counted for all the zones you hit. A hit on the bottom of the "10" zone up top, can get you 10 points for the 10, 2 points for the 2, and -5 points for the ring underneath. You're allowed only 10 shots, which I interpret to mean 10 holes in the paper. If you miss the paper, take another shot. This is in keeping with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Cheaper Than Dirt is sponsoring the April match, featuring aliens. Can't get the target image to upload, but it's Limited Vickers format, meaning that there are 11 targets, and you are allowed 11 shots. Again, the ADA applies.

E-Mail Bleg

I've recently gotten 2 e-mails from a group calling themselves The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee asking for monetary support for their efforts to overthrow the Republican Dictatorship in Wisconsin.

O.K. so they didn't phrase it quite that way, but the message was clear enough. They don't get enough money from Federal or Union sources, and all those death threats they send out are expensive. Plus there's union rate printing costs for the protest signs, and new batteries for the bullhorns, interstate bus rentals to bring people in, plus bail money for their more enthusiastic members.

Sorry, but the skyrocketing cost of ammo has depleted my supply of funding for domestic Marxists. Valuable lessons are there to be learned from the Tea Party whose members are enthusiastic enough to provide their own transport and signage, and who never seem to get arrested. As to the batteries, contact the Rev. Jackson. I understand he gets a discount for buying in bulk.

Federal TABOR

Actually being proposed as a balanced budget amendment, this proposed constitutional amendment (complete item here) has been rewritten to allow for overspending in fairly carefully specified circumstances.

Overspending in time of war for example, would require only a simple majority with the caveat that borrowed monies be spent to prosecute the war. Of course this would set up a situation in which the Pentagons entire budget is derived from borrowing, and the remainder of the money is spent on alternative-fueled monorails. Still, it might be an improvement in that it requires the congress to declare an actual war in order to spend all that money.

Also:

On that note, three-fifths of Congress would need to approve deficit spending during military conflicts — “an imminent and serious military threat to national security” — and the deficits would be limited to “outlays . . . made necessary by the identified conflict.”

Read the rest of this commentary here.

Being the devils advocate, I suppose it would only take 51% to declare N. Korea an "imminent and serious threat" or to declare a permanent state of war with Luxembourg. I also have to wonder about the efficacy of an amendment supported by both Ron Paul and Olympia Snowe.

Still hope springs eternal, and you were looking for a topic for your next letter to your Federal reps, right? Don't forget to ask that the ATF be abolished. By now several Senators are willing to admit having heard about Project Gunwalker.

Buying a Gun

In Germany. No not me, I'm solidly ensconced in Colorado, but if you meet a German who owns guns, you meet someone who makes the American gun nut seem pale by comparison

World Class Leadership

Drudge reports:

Libya Mission 'clouded by confusion'...

White House: Days, not weeks...

France: Weeks, not days...

Dem Rep: Obama told me US would be 'in and out'...

Pentagon: Likely to continue combat...

2,200 ground troops headed to region...

Earlier today he included the link about Obama promising "no ground troops to be involved" too. If you can't provide world class leadership, at least provide world class entertainment, like finding the White House locked up because no one expected him back.

Biden had paid the Mayans to sacrifice the first family to the Sun god, but the plot was foiled when Obie cut his vacation short. If at first you don't succeed, Joe, try, try again.

The National Budget

Bayou Man is noticing that the dreaded budget hawks we sent to Washington in the last election don't seem to be acquitting themselves so well. Part of this is because they don't control enough of the government to make much stick, but the other part is that even if they get everything they ask for, it still doesn't amount to much. This kind of timidity may get you re-elected in normal years, but it's a recipe for political suicide today.

If that moderate republican you've been electing since the Kennedy administration doesn't seem to be making much progress, what do you do? Vote for a well-coiffed Democrat who promises to take care of the overspending?

Telling yourself that you're voting the individual and not the party is self delusion. Once a person is elected, they are part of the party, and tend to vote in lockstep with the leadership, no matter what a pack of moonbats they might be.
A "highly principled blue dog democrat" differs from a doctrinaire Marxist only in the size of the bribe (they call it pork) he demands before throwing his support behind whatever the leadership is trying to pass.
A moderate republican does the same thing only he doesn't care so much which party is buying his vote.

The time is fast approaching when the Republicans will have to either deliver the goods, go down trying, or go the way of the Whigs.

Energy and Environment

H/T to Kevin for pointing me here.

I do believe I've found out where the O'Bumbles administration gets its energy policy advisers.

SEIU sued

The SEIU is being sued in Virginia by a catering company under the RICO act. It's good to see a company stand up on its hind legs and look after its own interests. Companies should do this sort of thing more often.

Interestingly it's a U.S. branch of a French company, you know, the country that argued the loudest about dealing with K'Daffy?

Abolish The ATF?

There's a discussion at Snowflakes In Hell as to we might be better off not abolishing the BATFE, but letting it survive as the damage it does might be less than the damage done if the same actions were undertaken by, say, the FBI.

So the ATF is to become the Viet Cong farmer / sniper who worked a field off the end of the runway at a U.S. air base.

Every time a plane took off, he would raise his rifle from the rice paddy and take a shot at it. In several years, he had scored no hits.

Everyone knew what he was doing, but nothing was done on the theory that if he was arrested, the V.C. would replace him with someone who was a better shot.

I liked the suggestion in the comments to move alcohol and tobacco to the IRS, since they're revenue items, and will suggest that firearms regulation be dropped completely.

The Future of Transportation, Trains

When you're trying to convince the American public that rail transport is a good idea, it doesn't help when the CEO of the big government-owned train system finds it more convenient to get off the train and take a car to get to the opening ceremony of a new station to be named for the most gaffe-prone member of the administration.

Probably also doesn't help that the cost over runs on the station are one of the more widely seen news stories on the net.

The National Budget

The party game du jour in Washington is currently the national budget, or how can you claim to be a budget hawk without actually doing anything. The Dems are proposing to-the-bone cuts of up to $6B. John at Power Line puts this in perspective by comparing the proposed budget to a MacDonalds big double burger, biggie fries, and medium drink. The proposed reduction comes to the equivalent of 1/3 of a french fry.

Call it the Donkey Diet. You order the biggest meal combo Micky D's has, and show your commitment by tossing 1/3 of 1 fry into the trash before devouring the rest. Frankly I think John overthought the problem. The caloric count of 1/3 of a fry can probably be found in the grease that soaks the paper that you were throwing out anyway, so go ahead, indulge.

An order of magnitude bigger than the Donks, at $60B, is the Repub proposal. This is equivalent to tossing 3 and 1/3 fries out. To hear the Dems, this is comparable to the recent famine in Ethiopia, or maybe Stalins forced famine in Ukraine.

Rand Paul is distinguishing himself from the flouncing budget dilettantes in the Senate by proposing cuts totaling some $500B. That would require forgoing some 31 fries, but not to worry, there are about 87 fries in the original order. Actually balancing the budget would require you forgo the fries completely, and a couple ounces of the soft drink as well.

Oh! The humanity!

Constitutional Carry #5

As predicted, Colorado's constitutional carry bill that passed the Republican controlled House, has been assigned to the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs committee.

For those of you who might not know, this committee is the one the Dems send bills to with the expectation that they will be voted down and buried under the compost heap without further fanfare. It is also referred to as the "kill committee".

No surprises here, so we wait till the next election.

Update: So I jumped the gun a bit. While the bill has been relegated to the "kill committee, bills have been known, like prisoners in Alcatraz, to successfully escape. Politicians are amenable to pleas from constituents, especially if there appear to be a lot of them. 3 committee members are described as "undecided" and might be reachable, so drop them all an e-mail in support of HB1205, which would make Colorado the 5th state to adopt such a measure.

Rollie	Heath	rollie.heath.senate@state.co.us	303-866-4872
Bob	Bacon	bob.bacon.senate@state.co.us	303-866-4841
Betty	Boyd	betty.boyd.senate@state.co.us	303-866-4857

Be polite, it's not like we're union members or anything like that.

Bloggus Interruptus

Work is the curse of the drinking and blogging class, that's for sure. Maybe I can get back to the blogging bit shortly here. I also will have some pictures of the Hi Point 4095, stripped down to the inner long-barreled pistol that lurks under the plastic skin. Interesting.

Read about economic theory for just a little bit, and you find the theory of the broken windows which suggests that having a window broken is just as good as selling a product, since the expense of replacing it is money pumped into the economy, no different than money the merchant would have spent anyway. If this sounds like bullshit to you, move to the head of the class.

Socialism is the "broken window" of modern society.

In Search Of Accuracy 3

Spring is in the air so I got out to do some carefully planned scientific tests with the Hi Point. First off I forgot the tripod for the chronograph. Fortunately the fellow in the next bay had one that worked.

Primary effort was to test some milder loads as the gun seemed to like the slower and heavier bullets better the last time. The outcome as to accuracy was problematic as I had switched to the iron sights, and then tried to shoot the thing at 50 yards. I need either better eyes or a bit of glass in my sight. Group size got slightly bigger. FWIW, here's the results from the chrony using 155gr bullets and Titegroup powder.
YMMV. I had hoped to try some 180 gr ammo, but it turned out that I didn't have any. Next time maybe. At any rate a mediocre day at the range is way better than almost any day around the house.

Gun Law

This article at cracked.com has been cited all over by just about everybody, and if you haven't been over to read it, you belong to a rather small circle. Here's a blog that doesn't normally specialize in guns, noting that gun laws in the U.S. are a pretty random collection of prose.

Me, I find them most interesting when you look into the reasoning that brought them forth in the first place. The Sullivan Law in New York was put in place by a corrupt politician at the behest of the Irish criminal constituency in an effort to prevent the Italians from cutting in to their territory. We all know how well that worked, don't we?

From the article:

To some Democrats, the only good gun owner is one that has been licensed, examined and regulated down to a BB gun and a slingshot. To some gun owners, the only good Democrat is a target. The Democrats are fully in favor of gun control, licensing and regulation.

The Dems are fully in favor of controlling, licensing, and regulating everything, every one, and every activity in which they might participate. Gun owners are not being treated differently, they're just being treated first. People in need of a visit to a doctor are next in line.

Car owners are already well in to the process. What other piece of personal property must be individually inspected and the license renewed annually. Oh yes, dogs and cats.

I don't advocate shooting politicians, at least not in this country, since this action seems to usually benefit the party of the shootee rather than the beliefs of the shooter. Still, to paraphrase someone else, there are a number of obituaries it would give me great pleasure to read.

The Madison Mob

Legislation reducing the clout of unions and making progress toward balancing Wisconsin's budget passed the Senate, and is now in the state Assembly where the Republicans also hold a majority. This annoys the unions to the point that they have entered the capitol building after being ordered out, and are busy chaining doors shut so that Republicans cannot get to the assembly to vote.

Apparently not having gotten the memo, the death threats are being sent out by bulk e-mail.
The police, who belong to the same union are refusing orders to clear the mob from the building.

They scream that this is their Cairo uprising against a dictator but to me the whole thing is more reminiscent of Tehran in '78.

Future Software Upgrades?

Microsquash is officially begging people to upgrade their Internet Explorer to finally get rid of IE6.

I have and use IE6, but not by choice. I switched to Firefox years ago, and not only never looked back, but quit accepting offers to upgrade IE6, so I still have it.

It turns out it has a use. Once a year when I do my taxes, Tax Cut insists that I use IE, minimum ver 6, to get the program going. It also insists that it can't work on my wide-format flat screen unless I force it down to 760 wide. It turns out that this is only necessary the first time, and after loading the software and updates, it works fine on the wide format, although only after complaining about the lack of a VGA CRT.

It's the ONLY time that software ever gets used.

Attention software writers: H&R Block doesn't know it yet, but they need you in the worst way.

Quote of the Day

I would vote for a syphilitic camel over Barack Obama in 2012, so therefore I would even vote for Huckabee or Gingrich. But I might try to talk the camel into running one more time. --George Will

Mr Will seems to have his finger on the thinking of a lot of people. I suppose this is how rhe Republicans get around the party predelection for nominating the guy who came in second to the one they nominated last time. Because it's his turn.

Sex Causes Cancer

Well, you knew you'd see this headline sooner or later. Here's the skinny.

Don't let this stop you. After all, in a long enough time frame the mortality rate is 100% anyway. It's just that some of us will die smiling.

People Find Me

People looking for things sometimes find not what they seek, but something else:

Referring URL		http://search.yahoo....r-hp-psg&type=HPNTDF
Search Engine		search.yahoo.com
Search Words		megominds dhiderashen gun
Visit Entry Page		http://billllsidlemi...coming-gun-laws.html
Visit Exit Page		http://billllsidlemi...coming-gun-laws.html

I going to guess this fellow was looking for a reference to Megamind's dehydration gun.

Not having seen the movie, I'm guessing. Sorry fella, I have no idea how it works, and don't anticipate publishing a range report anytime soon.

The Future of Transportation, Bicycles

Here's an article on a fellow who has built a vibro-massage into a bicycle seat, ostensibly to keep the circulation going in your butt on long rides.

Mmm-Kay.

Suggestion: Mount the control box on the handlebars, and make it look more like a radio. Include a radio to make it sound more like a radio. Put the speakers under the seat to drown out / augment the buzzing.

The possibilities are endless.

Alzheimers

A study cited here suggests that the plaques that are associated with Alzheimers disease are in fact, produced in the liver. The liver can be chemically discouraged from producing these plaques.

If we're lucky, we'll find out that beer discourages the production of harmful plaques, hopefully well before it discourages your liver completely.

Unemployment

Imagine you live in Springfield, home of the Isotopes, and you see that one of the businesses there has hung out a sign. Now hiring, need 5 people.

Imagine that there is a line of some 200 people waiting to apply.

Mayor Quimby is passing by, and a reporter asks him if this doesn't indicate that Springfield doesn't have an unemployment problem, what with 200 people chasing 5 jobs? Quimby agrees, and says he has a stimulating solution to the problem. He has the police come over with mean dogs and chases away half the applicants, then proudly states to the reporter that by stimulating movement in the crowd, he has cut the unemployment rate in half.

The reporter, of course reports this as unvarnished gospel.

Today, the government reported that unemployment was down to 8.9%.

Zero Hedge, however, reports that the non-working portion of the population is continuing to grow at a faster rate than the general population.
The smaller the workforce, the better the reduced number of available jobs looks.

Gateway has Gallups tracking of the unemployment rate here:
These numbers consistently look worse than the ones the administration puts out.

According to Ace, The unemployment rate is approaching what the administration threatened us with if congress failed to pass the porkulus bill.
I added some of the Gallup numbers in green. Doesn't look real promising does it?

And while government spending isn't the only thing weighing down any recovery, it certainly isn't helping. The Republicans, however, seem to be solidifying their reputation for being able to get along with the Dems by not really opposing them, and the Dems scream that they're being put to cruel and unusual death at the hands of psychotic budget slashers.

The screaming from the left covers the fact that the proposed cuts are really little more than fiddling with rounding errors on the part of the Repubs, and at the end of the day, little will actually change.

Tea, anyone?

Update: No sooner do I publish, then the WSJ comes out with a piece suggesting that if the government wasn't jiggering the numbers, the real U3 rate would be more like 11.3%, suggesting that those Gallup numbers are on the low side.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I attended a town hall meet with my new representative last night, and heard the latest scandal going around under the dome.

First, I did not know, but am not surprised to hear that the Governor here has a flunkey in the position of Minister of Energy Efficiency or some such. The President last year was throwing stimulus money around wildly trying to get O'Bama up in the polls, and some $45 million was passed from Washington to Colorado. This loot was then passed on to the aforementioned Poo-Bah with orders to use it to "improve energy efficiency" in the state.

The plan, as advertised, was to dole out the money in $3000 grants to deserving people to pay for new windows and insulation. Splendid.

The Poo-Bahs minions promptly began calling people to ask them if they would like a shot at the money, and where do you think they got the names and phone numbers? Why the rolls of registered Democrats, of course.

Questions are being asked, and jokes are being told under the capitol dome, and the local media haven't said boo.

Imagine my surprise.

Gun Law

We're winning, although I anticipate a long slow slog, uphill both ways, in the snow...

The first phase of passing Constitutional Carry through the
Colorado State House was accomplished this morning. House members
agreed to move this common-sense legislation forward by a vote of 40
to 25 (we'll post this vote when it becomes available on our website).

Let me take both the optimistic side and the pessimistic one.

Optimistically, everybody bombards their state senator with phone calls, faxes and e-mails asking for support for a bill that everyone (>50%) supports and which passed the house with bipartisan support, and faced with constituent pressure, the Senate passes the bill, which the governor vetoes.

Pessimistically, the Dems in the house who voted for the bill are from competitive districts and need to polish their apples if they expect to serve another term. Voting for the bill is safe if you know in advance the thing is going to die in the Senate. Can you say "Veterans Affairs Committee"? If you really want to give this bill a chance, write not just your Senator, but the Majority leader as well since he's the one who decides if the bill will ever see the light of day. Result: see above.

In your letters, be sure to point out that Wyoming is currently the stroke of the Governors pen from enacting the same legislation.

The reason for all this happiness is that John Hickenlooper was the only mayor in Colorado to be a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mayor Bloombergs anti-gun group which currently boasts a higher felony arrest and conviction rate, on a per capita basis, than the entire population of CCW holders in the country.

Don't let me discourage you from harassing your Senators and governor though. If the bill gets buried or vetoed, we can beat them over the head with that in the next election.