Bernie Sanders' Economics

Bernie Sanders, VT Senator demonstrates his lack of qualification to hold any office at all:

“You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants when children are hungry in this country,” Sanders told John Harwood in an interview posted Tuesday.

Perhaps, Bernie, maybe if we had 46 deodorants, the extra factories would hire the starving kids’ parents and the kids wouldn’t be starving.

Here, let me try that:

"You don't necessarily need 23,000,000 regulatory agencies when the real unemployment rate is above 10%."
Billll

There you go, a memorable quote and a Fox Butterfield moment as well.

Cynical Me

Went to the company cafeteria for a cuppa and glanced at the TV which is eternally on CNN. There a talking head was explaining that an expert witness in the James Holmes* trial had asserted that “Holmes knew what he was doing.” Which probably explains why he was unable to get a job.

For you out of staters, Holmes is the orange haired freak who shot up a theater full of people watching Batman.

Deja Vu - The 3/5 Rule

Way back when, the question of representation came up and the southern states argued for representation to the U.S. House based on the adult population of every state. The northerners argued that as slaves weren't citizens or allowed to vote they shouldn't be counted at all as this would in effect give the slave owning southern states greater representation than the same number of non slave owning northerners . The compromise was to count all free or indentured persons and 3/5 of the slaves.

Scroll forward 228 years and here we are again only with federal prisoners and immigrants, legal and otherwise being counted by the census for purposes of allotting representation. At this point I believe that the 3/5 compromise would probably be met with a good deal of push back.

More Global Warming

I swear we haven't had a rain free day here since it quit snowing. Most of today was clear if not very warm but not to worry, it cooled right off this evening:

At least the hail wasn't very big. Sure was cold though. My expectation is that at some point in the near future, this will stop and we won't see another drop before next year. OTOH it could be that all the rain that normally falls in California has, like all too many of the residents, moved here.

Gun Law - Colorado

From the newsletter I subscribe to at

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    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ColoradoRKBA/

 Partial reproduction:

Magazine restrictions, signed into law by our leftist CO governor (Democrat, of course) who dishonorably caved-in to pressure from the BHO Administration, are currently unenforced!
  
Yesterday, I visited a local gun retailer and purchased several 30-round MagPul AR magazines that were on unrestricted display on store shelves.  I asked the clerk about the “law,” and he indicated that it was universally,contemptuously ignored and that nobody cared.
  
When the law was first signed, retailers simply sold normal-capacity magazines dissembled.  The purchaser subsequently put the parts back  together and went his merry way.
  
Today, even that cynical pretense has apparently been discarded! 

-----------------

I can also report that the requirement that all private sales be accompanied with a background check is also largely ignored as well. Efforts to repeal both these laws and establish constitutional carry here easily enough passed the Republican controlled Senate only to be unceremoniously sent to the "kill committee" in the Dem controlled house. In any case, the governor, who seems to work for the Mayor of Colorado, Mike Bloomberg, would have vetoed the repeals anyway.

When the legislature passes a bad law, there are two possible outcomes. Number one is that the law is widely and generally ignored, neither enforced nor followed. Number two is the case in which the law is rigorously enforced. This is more likely to happen when localities stand to benefit from fines levied on the violators. As a Supreme court justice whose name I can't recall said:" Nothing will get a law repealed faster than rigorous enforcement.". Rigorous enforcement brings out constituents with pitchforks, torches, and alternative candidates.

This is probably the best outcome. If an errant pol gets an avalanche of mail and phone calls pointing out their sins, then as another famous pol said:"When I feel the heat, I see the light." This is nice, but changing a position on one or two issues won't hurt a pols chances in the next election and at the end of the cycle, you're still stuck with the same skunk you started with.

QOTD - Gun Rights

Found in a post at Gun Watch:

“Making good people helpless will not make bad people harmless,”
                                                 Indiana State Rep. Jim Lucas

Although it seems to be the guiding principle of the anti-gunners. We should probably ask them if passing a law disarming the lawful will stop gun violence, why not just pass a law against violence in general? Eliminate crime! Make crime illegal!

Drinking With The Scots

This is a PSA not to be confused with anything else it might resemble.

The St Andrew Society will be having its first Highland Happy Hour Fri, May 22, 5:00pm - Baker Street Pub and Grill, 7260 Alaska Dr., Lakewood, 80226. The pub is located in the Belmar Shopping Center, S.E. corner of Alameda and Wadsworth.

Good luck finding it if you've never been there.

This is a social event primarily for those of you afflicted with Scottish ancestry although this is certainly not a prerequisite. I'm not Scottish but it's hard to resist the siren call of a nice dark stout. Wear kilts, wear plaid, but don't forget the shirt and shoes without which there will be no alcohol or food.

The Narritive

Here we find the talking heads discussing the Waco kerfuffle and comparing it to the Baltimore riots. The cop on the show points out that the two are not remotely related.

Baltimore was a riot in a town with very strict gun laws. Almost nobody was armed and as a result neighborhoods burned. The criminals were out committing crimes, and no one was there to stop them A perfect failure of government to do the job they insist they have a monopoly concession on.

Waco was a modern day reenactment of the classic old west saloon gunfight. All the casualties seem to have been the combatants and although there may have been some collateral injuries among the bystanders, the media has yet to report any. Now there's a professor of religious studies who concludes that:

"Americans’ proven inability to handle widespread gun ownership” means “many forms of gun ownership” should be outlawed — and then the government should confiscate firearms deemed illegal.

Note carefully that only the bikers seem to have been killed. Note also that the saloon and the surrounding neighborhood are still standing, unburned. Further note that in spite of the number of arrests made, no one is threatening to burn down a nail salon in protest. Texas with its widespread gun ownership seems to have weathered the situation far better than Baltimore.

The news lady also seemed upset that when a black person gets arrested, the media always mention his race but when a white person is arrested, his race is almost never mentioned. This is perhaps because most of the population is white so when someone is arrested, the default condition is that the perp is white. Lumping Hispanics in with the whites, as frequently happens adds to the perception.

Similarly, when a pol is busted for some sort of corruption, the media standard is to list his party affiliation in the first line of the story if he's a Republican, and not at all if he's a Democrat. The default condition is for a corrupt pol to be a Democrat. It's less common, and therefore newsworthy if he happens to be a Republican.

Quit Looking For Work!

It lowers the unemployment rate when you stop looking. Right now it appears that for every 3 people in the National Snipe Hunt for jobs, there are 2 who aren't playing the game.

A New Place To Shoot

I just heard about Bristlecone Shooting, Training and Retail a couple weeks ago when my shooting buddy informed me that they were holding indoor bowling pin matches on a weekly basis. We went to one yesterday and I came away favorably impressed. They get 20-odd people through a pin match in 2 hours by keeping a fast pace and using a double elimination system that drops you out if you lose 2 tables. They also have a ranking system to give the Novices and Newbies a bit of a leg up.

Noobs get a red card which tells the crew to set their table with 3 pins at the rear of the table. Novices get a yellow card which gets them 4 pins in the middle of the table, and experienced shooters get a green card which gets you 5 pins up near the front. From the quarter finals up, everyone gets 5 pins so  bring your "A" game. If the crew decides you were overly modest about your skills, you'll get a field promotion.

I got through 4 tables before being eliminated so I guess I saved a bunch on ammo at least. Had I made it one step higher, I'd have taken home some payback in the form of in-house gift certificates so there's some incentive.

Brtistlecone will be adding .22 rimfire steel challenge as well although it doesn't show up on their website yet. If I remember right, this will begin on Wednesdays.

Hick Blew It!

It seems our governor has been played by the powers that be. After all those years of signing the ghastly collection of legislative sewage his party has dropped on his desk and being coy about rumors that he was on the short list to be Her Inevitableness' VP it seems he lacked only one critical qualification: He wasn't Hispanic enough.

Of course it may not be hopeless. The right amount of money could probably persuade Sid Blumenthal to send Hitlary a letter citing his family's influence in the signing of the Treaty of Guadelupe-Hickenlooper back in 1848. It could work. She seems to believe whatever Sid tells her.

Fun With Headlines

From James Taranto today:

“Elizabeth Warren: You Can’t Trust Barack Obama’s Promises”—headline, RollCall.com, May 18

or to translate from Mrs. warrens native tounge:

Meshugga schwartzes speak with forked tongue.

Pardon my spelling. The Mel Brooks movie didn't come with sub titles.

Great Art

Saw this on my way home the other day.

Reputedly their food is good as well.

The Zimmerman Standard

As you will recall, when George Zimmerman was initially arrested following the Treyvon Martin shooting, the DA in that case filed the usual basket of charges starting with murder in the first degree and working down. When the jury decided that Mr. Zimmerman had acted in self defense, the press was devastated.

Scroll forward. A Mr Apperson has attempted to assassinate Mr. Zimmerman with advance planning and announced intent to kill him. This would fulfill the usual requirements for a murder 1 charge if successful or attempted murder in the first if not. As Mr Appersons shot passed through Mr Zimmermans vehicle without hitting him, one would expect a charge of attempted murder to be filed.
You'd be wrong:
He's been arrested on an Aggravated Assault, Aggravated Battery and firing a projectile into an occupied conveyance.

Given the evidence (he confessed) The City Attorney could get Mr Apperson up to 60 years without trying. Be interesting to see what charges wind up being actually filed.

Update: Apperson has some colorful history.

If The Lord Had Meant Us To Vote...

... he's have given us candidates to vote for. All too often I trudge down to the polls and pull the lever for the con man whom I believe will do me the least damage. But wait! In Flint Michigan, due to some sort of bureaucratic screw-up, the people there voting for a new mayor have a choice between a convicted murderer, someone with a DUI on his record, and a pig. Write-in candidates all.

Now in all fairness, the murderer has served his time and the other fellow having only one DUI on his record is easily attributable to bad luck. Except for being career politicians, which is not what we think of as a career criminal, they may be not so bad. The pig, on the other hand, has not only a clean criminal record, but also has not been a career as a politician although I would not be surprised to hear he has rolled in mud.

Now why can't we all get candidates like that.

Are You Sensitive?

Do you notice aggressions, affronts, or injustices, real or imagined? If you do you may be sensitive. To what I'm not sure but go here and look over the 27 questions. If you agree, even somewhat, with more than half of them then you may need psychiatric help be just a bit over sensitive.

Go ahead, give it a try. I scored a 2. Let's see you do better.

Mental Health

With a dollop of physical health tossed in for good measure.
 It seems WHO has decided that diseases should carry more politically correct names instead of ones that evoke its source like bird flu or swine flu, or it's origins like Rift Vally Fever, or it's discoverer like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which needs a better name anyway.

Observing these guidelines, one may rejoice that chicken pox and small pox have been eliminated although  Vertically Challenged Pox might not prove to be as popular.

Just remember that political correctness is now Liberals Dementia and to be Not Politically Correct is to be free of it.

Happy Mothers Day

For tonight and tomorrow:

Showers and thunderstorms with rain turning to snow early in the evening and lasting through Sunday Morning. Moderate to heavy snow at times with metro snow from 5 to 10" in the heavier bands. Storm totals in the Foothills could reach from 8 to 12". These forecast numbers will change as new data arrives.

"Holey crap Fred, look how deep it is out now! Better update the website."

This will be the heavy wet stuff that breaks all the tree limbs. Where's Al Gore when you need him. Oh wait! When Pope Al shows up the snow generally gets deeper.
3 PM May 9

8 AM May 10

Breaking News - Standoff!

The feds were trying to arrest a bank robber on an interstate flight when he shot one of them and barricaded himself in a roadside motel of slightly dubious repute right here in my fair city about 2 miles from home. This has caused a re-routing of a major traffic artery sending traffic through Littleton that would normally never be seen. Suffice it to say the detoured traffic is NOT moving very fast.

The outcome is still TBD at this hour, but the motel is located across the parking lot from a LaMars donut shop and a Bruegger's coffee shop so the police have no motivation to end the standoff quickly, at least until LaMars runs out of donuts or the Bruegger's runs out of coffee..

Update: The fellow was wanted for 4 bank robberies in Denver. He offed himself so the kerfuffle is over. Traffic on Sante Fe should be back to normal by Monday.

Expensive Weekend

Which wouldn't be so bad if the money were being spent on hookers and blow or some such, but no, the Pretentious British car in in the British car shop to get it to run on all 8 cylinders, the pickup in in the generic auto shop to get the brakes to work on all 4 wheels, and I get to travel about on a motorcycle on a weekend with an aggregate 75% chance of rain culminating in 1-3" of snow.

Did I mention the plumber? He has already come and gone and his presence wasn't cheap either.

My turn in the barrel I guess.

Islamic Terrorism - Keeping Score

Following the shootout in Garland TX, there are lots of brave hoots and hollers celebrating a score of
Islamic terrorists         Regular Americans
0                                   2

I took a cursory look and in the last 40 years or so, there have been some 75 attacks by people claiming an affinity with Allah as an excuse. Some were describable as jihadi attacks and some were in the cultural no mans land of honor killings which are still about a Muslim killing someone for not being sufficiently Muslim. Even the total number of attacks is suspect on account of the beltway snipers deeds all being listed separately as were the 4 airplanes used on 9/11.

The article does not list the fates of the attackers although 18 died on 9/11, and one each from the Beltway and the Boston marathon actions. If we add in the two from Garland, the score for the last 40 years is about:
Islamic terrorists         Regular Americans
3,103                          22

If this isn't a call for less back-slapping and high fives and more vigilance, I don't know what is.

Springtime Shooting

Around here it's in the "Do ya feel lucky, punk?" category. There's supposed to be an IDPA match at the Clear Creek County Sportsman's Club range in Dumont this Saturday. Go ahead, look it up. The road doesn't even widen as it goes through Dumont.

The forecast is for 1-3" on Friday, 12+ inches the day of the match, and another 1-3 on Sunday as it tapers off. That's SNOW, not rain.

I wonder if IDPA would be interested in branching out into Winter Biathlon?

Maker Faire

There will be a local Maker Faire at the Denver Museum of Natural History June 12-14th so make plans to go there. I'll be there along with lots of other Mad Scientists showing off our wares and projects. This is the 10th anniversary of the first Maker Faire held in San Jose about which an attendee had this to say:

“I remember walking up to the gate with my son Kindy, then 11,” he says. “We stopped in our tracks at the sound of a very loud, fiery explosion coming from somewhere near the entrance. Kindy looked at the tall flames rising up, looked back at me, and started running towards their source. He was sucked in before we even got inside!

Nothing like a demonstration of blowing something up to get a kid interested in going to engineering school.

Another Sign Of Spring

Taking the bicycle out and overdoing it. It's 12 miles from home to Confluence Park at the original center of Denver. Normally When there's major digging going on the trail is more like 15-16 miles. Of course if you know what they're doing there are back street shortcuts so the 24 mile trip turned into 28 miles and I didn't even need an EMT although the last 5 miles were mighty slow.

You know you're an engineer when you take apart a $10 cordless screwdriver from Harbor Freight and try to fix it. Those things have a marvelous double planetary gear reduction assembly in them, mostly plastic and held together by gravity. Rule one when handling double planetary gear sets: Don't drop it on the floor. Especially if it's a badly lit dirty floor. It takes a while to find all 6 planet gears.

Oh well, the floor needed cleaning anyway.

Spring Is In The Air

Yes it is

What's your favorite?

Found at Elm Tree Forge.

Repealing The Magazine Limits

Or for that matter, any of the myriad nuisance gun laws the Dems passed here in '13 when they figured they had a permanent majority and didn't need to listen to Republicans any more.

On the mag limits, it seems that Joe Salazar D-Thornton, having won his "super safe" district by only 200 or so votes, offered to raise the limit to 30 rounds. This would have been a clever move on his part as the bill might have passed in the house and certainly passed in the Senate as long as there weren't any poisonous amendments. Following that, the governor could then veto the bill, thus saving the Dems from having to explain it to their constituents while allowing selected Dems to brag on voting for it in an attempt to bolster their standing with the gun owners, some of whom are Democrats.

Overall, passing a bipartisan bill like this would have made taking the House next year much more difficult. The law as it stands now is unenforceable and ridiculously easy to get around. No one who wants a mag over 15 rounds is more than very slightly inconvenienced and everyone knows this.

Dudley Browns position of no compromises whatsoever is a bit over the top but in this case it looks to me like it will work out, just not for the reasons Dudley is giving us. As long as these laws remain in effect, they can be used to beat the Dems for being anti-civil rights. We're better off if we're able to toss the lot of them after the next election. The one thing that would make that more likely would be if the Dems start demanding that they be enforced.

School Disallows "Unhealthy" Lunch

Story here although it may get displaced over time. A pre-school wouldn't let a kid finish her lunch since it contained "unhealthy" cookies.

I am reminded of a cartoon, which I can no longer find, of 4-5 lions feeding on a dead antelope while a 5th lion, his mane tied back in a pony tail disdains the food saying:

"Antelope without Bearnaise sauce? I'd rather starve!"

The caption suggests that lions of this persuasion are now extinct.