Guns And Pot And Confiscations

A fellow came by our table at the gun show today asking about recommendations for a lawyer. It seems that his home in unincorporated Jefferson County was raided by officers of the Denver police department who searched his house and confiscated all the guns there, some of which belonged to his wife. The explanation he was given was that since he has a "red card" for medical marijuana, his second amendment rights are forfeit.

There is an ongoing problem with Colorado's experiment legalizing MJ in that the form 4473 asks if the applicant is a user of illegal drugs. While MJ is legal at the state level, the feds still consider it to be an illegal drug so answering the question  in the negative would be construed by the feds as a false answer. Answering in the positive would of course result in a rejection for purchase of a firearm.

As he explained it the Denver cops took all the guns in the house including his wife's guns although she does not use medical MJ, and some guns which he has had since before the introduction of background checks. Some months have passed, and no charges have been filed but the DPD refuses to return the guns.

We recommended him to a first rate attorney who even if they can't afford him will send them to someone more economical who can competently assist them.

I'll see if I can get any more information on this.

Gun Rights - Much Needed Legislation

Rep. Patrick Meehan  (R-PA) Rep. Katherine Clark  (D-MA) recently introduced the Interstate Swatting Hoax Act.

Found the reference here with highlights  

H.R. 1041.

False communications with the intent to cause an emergency response.

(a)

Criminal violation

Whoever, with the intent to cause an emergency response by any law enforcement agency, in the absence of circumstances requiring such a response, uses a telecommunications system, the mails, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to knowingly transmit false or misleading information indicating that conduct has taken, is taking, or will take place that may reasonably be believed to constitute a violation of any State or Federal criminal law, or endanger public health or safety, shall—

(1)

if an emergency response results, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;

(2)

if serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365) results, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both;

(3)

if death results, be fined under this title or imprisoned for any number of years or for life, or both; and

(4)

in any other case, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both.

It gets better. RTWT for the details and imagine an anti-gunner being frog-marched out of the Wal Mart where they hoped the police would gun down one of their enemies for them.

This sort of approach is over due and badly needed. We need to explain* to the grabbers that murder-by-proxy is a non-trivial offense against everyone.

The proposed piece here is Federal legislation which means it won't get passed and certainly won't get signed. This being an election year, we should all cut and paste the summary of the bill and send it to our state and local politicians for possible offering at that level.

*O.K. for these folks explaining involves a 2x4 applied to the side of the head, but the proposed legislation should work nearly as well.

Debate Summary

Trump was right.

Attention Song Writers

Here's everything you need except the melody.

All the critical elements for a real heart breaker here.

Festivities

The 25th was the birthday of Robert Burns, so off we went to celebrate with traditional Scottish fare:

Haggis and tattie. That's a table serving, not the main course. You take a pie wedge and see if your table mates want the rest. If they're not quick about it, you get another. The rest of the course includes Scotch which is brought in with a piper and served to the leaders of the fest in a two-handed cup which is fortunately not completely full. The drill is that you drink your dram from the cup then signify that you've downed it by turning the cup upside down over your head so it's drink it or wear it.

No Scotch was wasted in the ceremony. The piper on the right had to suffer the indignity of someone over 21 filling in for her. There were several volunteers.

Toasts were made and poetry read. The toast to the president was quite brief which avoided any big embarrassments and frankly I still think mine would have been more warmly greeted, but oh well.

For more Scottish poetry try The Haggis of Private McPhee.

FWIW, not only was there leftover Haggis, but I got a nice chunk of it. Re heated with hash brown potatoes and topped with an egg over easy it makes a fine breakfast.

Obama Inches Away From Hillary

She's not under the bus yet, but the bus seems to be heading her way and O'Bungler at least seems to see it coming and is slowly inching out of the traffic lane.

It means that she can govern and she can start here, [on] day one, more experienced than any non-vice president*(1) has ever been who aspires to this office. Her strengths, in terms of the ability to debate, the ability to, I think, project genuine concern in smaller groups*(2) and to interact with people, where folks realize she’s really warm and funny and engaging—

I'm thinking that the word is getting out that the case against her is good enough that having Loretta Lynch simply ignore it isn't going to work. I would also not be terribly surprised to hear about a White House meeting involving Mike Bloomberg to discuss "something".

*1: Take a hint Joe.
*2: Small groups. The people she can talk to in the adjacent cells.

Gasoline At $149/gallon

Not at the corner gas station where you have the option of going somewhere else, but at the military motor pool where gas is supplied by people with political connections.

One of the companies that got a lucrative biofuel contract from the military was the San Francisco–based Solazyme Inc. According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2009, Solazyme got a $223,000 contract for 1,500 gallons of algae-based motor fuel. That works out to $149 per gallon.

I suppose the good news is that this fuel didn't take anything from the national food supply. Still seems a bit pricey.

RTWT: This wasn't even the worst of it.

Even Worse?

It now appears that those classified e-mails on Hills server were put there by her aide, Huma who passed them on to the unsecured computer by copying them from ultra-secure State department computers and pasting them to e-mails sent by unsecured computers which then arrived on Hills machine without the SOOPER-SEKRIT labels.

If an enemy agent wanted the information to fall into other hands without actually handing the stuff off herself, what better way than to move the info to an unsecured site. Of course that would mean that everyone from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Norks got a copy, but so what. Finally some real transparency from the O'Bungler administration.

Of course this further incriminated Hill as keeping classified info on a private and unsecured computer, but additionally it makes her aide, Huma Abedin look an awful lot like an active enemy agent.

Humas connections to the Muslim Brotherhood are well enough known and should have disqualified her from a sensitive job like Hills handler. I wonder if it's enough to make Hill complicit in an espionage action?

Enjoy The Day

 

 

 You know who you are.

Wishful Thinking

In the original story the piper got them all to jump in the water and drown.
Found at Theo Spark.

Keeping Firearms Out Of The Wrong Hands

The Feds are noting s spike in firearm thefts resulting from armed robberies in Denver. A total of 56 were stolen in 2014, but last year the ATF says that number nearly tripled. This year we're off to a flying start with 3 pawn shop robberies.

Not to worry. Colorado passed a universal Background Check law back in 2013 which the Dems assured us would prevent any of these guns being transferred illegally.

Welcoming Immigrants - Who Are Willing To Assimilate

Denmark has figured out how to subtly suggest to potential new ''Syrian" immigrants that they are not in a sharia-compliant country any more. The discreed hints are dropped at any place that serves food to the public by requiring that at least one pork-derived item be included on the menu.

When in Rome, as they say, eat spaghetti. When in Denmark, you don't have to eat Danish ham, but it's going to be on the menu and in the kitchen.

Multiculturalism should work both ways. Instead of demanding that a restaurant remove its outdoor sign touting its bacon-enhanced foods, the complainant should be reminded that they are not in East Islamowhackostan any more.

QOTD - Economics

OK so Trump is an economic ignoramus. It seems he's not alone and that knowing little on the topic is no impediment to great wealth. Check this offering from George Soros:

“Quantitative easing has worked. It has saved the world from deflation and a Great Depression,” Soros said. And regions like Europe need another dose. “What you have to do is just print money.”

Scroll down a bit an you will see what exactly printing money indiscriminately actually does. 

The Third Rail in Iowa

In spite of the fact that 3-rail electric trains aren't popular outside of New York, everyone understands that there are certain issues that one simply dies not bring up in an election year. This myth is pushed hard by the left to keep the right from pointing out some of their greatest failings. Social Security for example is an unsustainable Ponzi scheme but if anyone suggests this they are instantly denounced as wanting to "toss grandma (who votes Democratic) out on the streets". The Republicans (stupid party) assume that anyone over the age of 62 is too dumb to understand simple economics, and let the cancer grow.

This year in Iowa Cruz has taken a position against Big Alcohol and Trump has waded in on the side of ADM, denouncing Cruz as being in the pocket of Big Oil. So far the folks in Iowa, which boasts one of the best school systems in the country, are favoring Cruz, apparently recognizing that burning all that corn lowers their fuel economy, increases the carbon footprint and tax bill, speeds up the deterioration of their vehicles, and raises the price of food. Even if you get paid well for selling that snake oil, the increased costs elsewhere more than offset the income.

Running a farm is no different from running any other business and if you don't understand the economics of business, you won't be running it for long. Cruz has grabbed the third rail of taxpayer subsidized corn alcohol and has discovered that there is little or no voltage in it as he currently leads Trump in the Iowa polls. I find this encouraging as the more we learn about Trump, the more apparent is becomes that as popular as he is, the man is an economic ignoramus. The world economy is in bad enough shape already and we don't need a trade war right now.

The finance wonks currently meeting in Davos seem to agree with most of them seeing President Trump as no improvement over O'Bungler.

“The globe needs the U.S. to be strong,” she said. “The U.S. is still the horse that’s pulling the cart, and more so now with the capital outflows from emerging markets.”

 With the rest of the world being run by socialists of one stripe or another, that's an accurate picture, made complete by visualizing the cart as being full of the economically dead or dying ("I'm not dead yet!") viz. the Bring out your dead scene from Monty Python.

The future Of Transportation - Elio

And it's looking like the fed.gov will kill the Elio before it gets to production. Seems the feds are moving toward regulating some "car-like" 3-wheelers as cars with all that that implies.

Paul Elio has hopes that his design will be exempt even if the Polaris Scorpion magically becomes a car. I've got my doubts as I remember the ultralight airplane beginnings with flyable and reasonably safe designs at fairly reasonable prices. Then the FAA stepped in and now an ultralight costs close to what a production aircraft does. Has nearly all the features too except for severely limited fuel capacity and speed limits.

You have to get to full production before the regulators can get the first volume of regulations out or you won't get to production at all. Regulatory agencies are controlled by the industries they regulate and exist primarily to keep competitors out.

Updated to fix wonky links.

Inflation - Cooking The Books

I've been a frequent complainer here about the obvious discrepancy between the government produced CPI and the obvious much higher inflation that I see in the stuff I buy regularly. Chapwood Investments has actually put together an index based on actual stuff people buy and actual prices people pay for it and has come up with the Chapwood Index which seems to me to reflect much more accurately the galloping inflation the government works so hard to cover up.

The index is comprised of some 500 items, many of which I buy regularly and some of which I wouldn't be caught dead within 1/2 mile of but I suppose it accounts for national variation. They have a chart at the link that lists the calculated inflation rates for 50 cities. Yes, the rate will vary by city since taxes and regulations contribute to variations in prices. Their chart is arranged by city size. I took their data and added the 5-year average inflation hike, then sorted by that. Here's the top 11:

 

City (Ranked By Population)

State

CY 2011

CY 2012

CY 2013

CY 2014

June 30 Trailing 12

Average 5 year

Rank

36. Long Beach	CA	12.00%	13.80%	13.40%	12.90%	13.20%	13.06%	1
13. San Francisco	CA	12.50%	13.40%	13.00%	12.70%	12.90%	12.90%	2
10. San Jose	CA	12.80%	13.70%	12.70%	13.70%	11.40%	12.86%	3
47. Oakland	CA	12.30%	13.30%	13.40%	12.20%	13.10%	12.86%	4
8. San Diego	CA	12.10%	12.40%	12.40%	13.10%	12.00%	12.40%	5
35. Sacramento	CA	11.80%	13.20%	12.80%	11.40%	11.70%	12.18%	6
2. Los Angeles	CA	12.30%	13.20%	11.30%	12.10%	11.20%	12.02%	7
24. Washington	DC	11.40%	12.60%	12.70%	11.40%	11.80%	11.98%	8
34. Fresno	CA	11.60%	12.40%	12.90%	12.00%	10.30%	11.84%	9
1. New York	NY	11.60%	12.10%	10.80%	12.40%	10.90%	11.56%	10
3. Chicago	IL	10.90%	13.60%	12.10%	10.90%	10.10%	11.52%	11

Note the disproportionate presence of California cities in the top ranks. Taxes and regulation anybody? The number on the left is the cities size ranking.
Here's the bottom:

46. Tulsa	OK	8.80%	9.40%	8.80%	8.40%	6.40%	8.36%	40
38. Mesa	AZ	8.50%	9.80%	9.40%	7.80%	6.20%	8.34%	41
26. Denver	CO	9.10%	9.10%	7.60%	7.70%	8.00%	8.30%	42
33. Tucson	AZ	8.50%	9.70%	9.00%	8.60%	5.70%	8.30%	43
11. Jacksonville	FL	8.40%	8.80%	8.70%	7.60%	7.70%	8.24%	44
25. Nashville	TN	9.40%	9.10%	8.20%	7.80%	6.50%	8.20%	45
42. Omaha	NE	8.30%	8.30%	8.10%	7.90%	7.90%	8.10%	46
43. Raleigh	NC	8.40%	9.20%	7.90%	7.90%	6.80%	8.04%	47
49. Wichita	KS	7.40%	8.20%	8.10%	7.40%	6.70%	7.56%	48
32. Albuquerque	NM	7.40%	8.10%	7.70%	7.10%	7.40%	7.54%	49
41. Colorado Springs	CO	8.70%	8.50%	6.50%	6.60%	7.10%	7.48%	50
Overall average							9.91%

Denver and Colo Spgs happily reside near the bottom since I live in CO. I wonder how this chart would correlate with one showing relative economic freedom of the individual states?

Since the government sees no significant inflation, and I'm on a fixed income, I get to experience an 8.3% annual decline in my standard of living, less what ever the government adds to my SS allowance, if anything. For the rest of you that 5 year average number in column #8 is what you need by way of an annual raise to break even from year to year.

One other thing I noticed was that among the 500 items used to make up this index was a gun and ammunition. No info as to what sort of gun or how much ammunition but for me this probably makes up for not having any pool maintenance.

One more use of this chart is to cite it in e-mails to political candidates at all levels and ask them what they propose to do to mitigate the excessive inflation it demonstrates.

Click the link and RTWT.

More Gun Fun

Just what the world needed, an even larger "pistol" round for the AR platform.
Go here to get a look at an AR in .510 Beck.
This makes hunting with a rifle-like gun possible in areas where using a bottleneck cartridge is prohibited.

I'm not sure how those laws are worded so that a .71 slug in a smooth barrel is legal but a .30 bullet in a rifled one is not and somehow a .51 bullet in a rifled barrel with a straight wall cartridge passes muster, but I guess it does. Looks about right for really large game in cluttered areas where those legendary 1000 yard shots simply aren't going to happen.

Gun Fun

Went to Bristlecone Shooting for their Monday night Bowling pin match to try out my latest gizmo, the Glock duck bill.

This looks longer than it is

The feature adds about 2 inches to the overall length of the gun and provides a bit of stability to the barrel as I'm swinging from pin to pin. I suppose there's a bit of down force added as well as the "bill" catches a bit of muzzle blast and directs it upward, but not a lot that I've noticed. It's all steel and weighs about 3-4 oz. I thought it helped in the match although I got eliminated by a 10 year old girl with a tricked out Browning Buckmark.

Note that at these indoor pin matches, the tables are different from the standard 4' x 8' ones. The indoor tables are 2' x 8' and the pin count and location varies. An experienced shooter will get 5 pins about 6 inches back from the front. An intermediate shooter will get 4 pins 12" back, and a novice will get 3 pins 6" from the back of the table. Shooting with a .22, if you're in the 3 or 4-pin classes, the pins fall slowly over backwards and off the table. Shooting in the expert class with a .22, the pins fall over backwards and remain on the table and are very difficult to get rolling off the table with a .22. The little girl got promoted to expert but not before eliminating me.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

So go to Google search and past in " will Hillary " and note the autofill suggestions. Select #1 (will hillary get prosecuted) and note how many possible answers there are (About 1,610,000 results,

0.38 seconds). Try the second (will hillary clinton get prosecuted) and look at the hits on that one (About 6,600,000 results.0.34 seconds)

It was the most asked question from the people during the Dem debates Sunday night, but for some reason was not asked, possibly because the people with the actual answer weren't on the stage.

The first person who would be asked would be FBI director James B. Comey whose office is conducting the investigation. He would probably be able to answer the question but his position on the governmental food chain at #3 precludes him actually answering.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is the person with the official responsibility to give the go-ahead on prosecutions based on evidence submitted from the FBI but her position at #2 on the food chain means no action without permission from the top. Without this permission, she will probably announce that the just-us department is carefully studying all the evidence and will make a decision when the study is complete. Unsaid but understood is the date on this which would likely be January of 2024.

#1 on the food chain, El Presidente will diplomatically waffle publicly stating that Mrs Lynch is working on the evidence and he doesn't want to influence her decision. 

It now looks like while the Clintons don't own the cops, they do own the judges so I'd have to guess that no, Hill will not be prosecuted and will probably get a presidential pardon in January of 2017.

.

Literacy

Tinsley has this comment:

In some places I'm told it's easier to buy a gun than a copy of the constitution. Of course at gun stores and gun shows it's frequently easier to get a free copy of the constitution than a gun as no background check is required.

Not to worry, if the kids can't read their diplomas when they graduate from high school, reading the constitution should be the least of Barrys worries.

"Ideas are more dangerous than guns. We don't let our people have guns. Why would we let them have ideas?" Josef Stalin

Medical Advances

This one is fairly impressive. In M.S. the body's immune system fails and attacks the body's nervous system. The solution seems to be to extract some stem cells from the victim, use cancer drugs to obliterate the existing immune system, then put the stem cells back where they replace the missing system. The new system does not seem to have the flaws of the one its replacing.

This has some implications for other diseases involving the immune system. We can now either reprogram the system or completely replace it.

At the same time some debate continues on the topic of mixing human and animal genes. We already do this to give lab mice human-like organs on which we test new drugs and/or therapies. The problem comes in when it is noted that mice with human analog organs also seem to be noticeably smarter. Growing a replacement heart and liver inside a pig may sound like a good idea, but what if when you come to harvest the organs, the pig has a pistol and want's to keep them? Intelligence we now understand does not come from one gene or even a small handful but from a rather large collection of widely scattered markers.

Why Dems Hate Guns

It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Imagine how different things would be today if
Juanita Broaddrick had been carrying a pistol.

Light Reading

(Snicker)

Here's some good stuff to peruse:

First here's Scott Adams who touts his 100% correct prediction rate in the presidential circus so far:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/137137359536/today-i-help-you-see-the-future

Here's the money quote:

Identity always beats analogy

Analogy always beats reason

Reason beats nothing

Nothing at all. Reason is a voice crying in the wilderness it would seem. This would explain why Trump is leading on the Republican side identifying with the "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" crowd, and why Hillary is (was?) leading on the Dem side identifying as a woman. Hills problem is trying to identify as a feminist while getting a big warm endorsement from Bill.



Trumps weakness is the same one Sanders has, namely no real answer to the question of "How you gonna do that?" which is cropping up occasionally to both of them, but hey, Reason beats nothing.

Jeff Deist at Mises daily on PC
https://mises.org/library/pc-about-control-not-etiquette-0

Jeff talks about the PC culture, where it comes from and what to do about it. this seems to be a scholarly and much shorter version of Vox Day's book on SJW's who live or die on whether people buy into the PC they're selling.

Like all propaganda, PC fundamentally is a lie. It is about refusing to deal with the underlying nature of reality, in fact attempting to alter that reality by legislative and social fiat. A is no longer A.

And Sarah Hoyt on persuasion
http://accordingtohoyt.com/2016/01/12/truth/
 

This covers how to sell a lie.
She's seen a lot of it.

Tonights Republican Debates

Watching someone else summarize the think frankly beats actually watching it. The solution I'm finding is to watch Steve Green donate his liver to Political Science here, while the bettors odds get updated every 5 minutes here with a running tab as to which way and how far everyone moved.

So Trump is losing a bit, Cruz has moved up nearly 5.5 points and Bush has slipped  .8%. Above graphic current as of 9:20 MST.

European Rights

As far as I know, the Europeans don't have any rights in the sense that anything might be recognized as God-given. Does not having a right imply an inherent right to defend it? Rights granted by governments are not actual rights in that a government may revoke them, thus they are privileges, not rights. If you let the government define your rights as privileges, you have already lost them.

A "universal declaration of human rights" is actually nothing more than statute law, subject to "common sense" modification or limitation. You may say whatever you want in Europe, as long as no one is offended by your speech for example. You may defend yourself against attack as long as your defense does not exceed the level of the attack, so if you and your attacker end up equally damaged or dead, then you're good to go as long as the walking stick you used is not judged to be more dangerous than his sap.

Insty is noting that the Euros are discovering the need for a right to arms in the light of their governments discovering no need for such formalities as national borders. France today is facing the latest incarnation of the army of Emir Abdul Rahman and has not yet recognized this.

Gun Law - Australian Model

Over at Uncle Jay's there's a fairly complete list of the hoops you have to go through to get into the shooting sports with a pistol. Don't get in a hurry because it seems to take around 6 months before you'll be allowed to actually buy one of your own, but no fear mate, you can borrow a club pistol as long as you're closely supervised by a more senior member.

The rather lengthy list of FAQ's is not promised to be complete, so whatever you do, it probably won't be enough. Gotta keep the guns out of the wrong hands after all. Oh yes, if you're planning to visit, Jay also nots:

Listen to Uncle Jay:

When you arrive in Australia, you may be asked some questions by Customs & Immigration at the airport checkpoint.

If they ask if you have any felony convictions, the reply "I didn't know it was still a requirement." is NOT the correct response...

Just sayin'

 It is good to think that 1: there is very little crime in Oz and 2: the police will appear within seconds of anyone initiating a crime. Wish we had that.

Gun Law - You Are Racist, And Dumb

Gary Gutting has an article in the NY Times in which he denounces white people in general and permissive gun laws as racist. Mr Gutting is apparently unaware that most of the gun laws ever passed in the United States were specifically passed to restrict access to guns by blacks. He says he doesn't want to argue the validity of any gun laws (!) but rather denounces white people as being stupid for not supporting them. As Katherine Timpf remarks at National Review:

Now, to be fair, he concedes that that doesn’t necessarily mean that those people are racists — it’s just that they’re not smart enough to see what he sees.

This gets down to the bedrock beliefs of Socialists: That the public is not smart enough to manage it's own affairs and only the intellectual god-kings of stateism are smart enough to know what we really want.

Next Election

It's still 10 months out but already the left has come out four square in favor of admitting 100,000 “Syrian” immigrants of the type who perpetrated mass sexual assaults on New Years in Europe. They also push draconian gun control, catch and release crime control, mandatory union membership for everyone, and the sort of tax rates we haven't seen since the 50's, in the 90% range. The Dem field is down to the inevitable winner who is increasingly looking like she'll need a presidential pardon to remain eligible for the office, the septuagenarian Socialist and an unidentified 3^rd fellow. At this point Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren is probably banging her head on her computer keyboard wondering why she ever dropped out of the running. Even the party's second favorite gun grabber, Michael Bloomberg is looking into a run.

On the right, Don Trump is blustering forward like Patton marching through Europe with Ted Cruz showing us how to do the same thing without the bluster. The myriad Republicans are showing us the wisdom of the “11^th commandment” which is to never speak ill of a fellow Republican, no matter how dubious his credentials might be. The party management that gave us Bush, Romney, McCain, and whomever ran against Clinton in 96 are by now in such bad odor that their most favored candidate is only pulling about 3%. Trump and Cruz have generally refrained from personal attacks against each other with Trump alternately cracking under the pressure of possibly losing Iowa and trying to show that he really likes Cruz, just not enough to vote for him in a primary by suggesting that he might make either a good V.P. or a Supreme court justice.

The beating the GOPe is taking right now makes me wonder if this might be the last election for the Republican party with the next presidential election being between candidates from the Tea Party and the Social Democrats.

Festivities

At a social event on my near horizon, part of the festivities will involve eating Haggis*, and drinking some pretty good Scotch, which will make the bagpipes sound better. The Scotch drinking comes in the form of toasts which will be offered to Robert Burns, the lassies, the laddies, many of whom will be wearing kilts, the Queen, and the President. That last one has gotten more and more difficult to find someone to propose it for some reason but where there's an excuse to toss back some single malt, there's a way.

Just remember that it's an ill wind that blows nobody good, so look for those whose sails are filled in the right direction:

“Now fill your glasses and be upstanding as we raise this toast to the finest inspiration to the defenders of the liberties we hold dear, especially the First and Second amendments to the constitution, as well as the best purveyor of firearms and training in their art in the history of the world. Here's to the man whose pivotal pursuit of law and order, race relations, immigration, and foreign relations has made the concealed carry permit the most sought after government document today, surpassing even the coveted green card. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the President of these United States”

*There's haggis then there's Haggis. The old traditional kind was what the Scottish peasants made from a lamb after the local Lord had taken his share away. Believe me the Lords didn't leave much behind. More recently as the Scottish economy improved, the recipe was improved upon, parts of the lamb that were normally eaten by humans were included as well as spices beyond just salt and pepper. Even better, parts of the lamb that were NOT normally eaten by anyone with even a part time job were left out. We're having the good stuff.

System Outage

Jan 8

Not something you want to write about, but that's what's happening. It seems my ISP is currently experiencing outages in Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Salt Lake City and up and down the east coast. Calls to them reveal nothing as no one there is willing to even guess what's going on or when, if ever, it's apt to get fixed. The best info is that they're working on it.

Jan 10

I can get e-mail using my tablet and my neighbor's wi-fi but that's rather a slow link. D'wife is ready to chuck the current ISP and switch to a cable based one although I suspect that that will result in the old ISP solving the problem about the same day we get the new modem up and working. It also appears that all the available alternatives are significantly more expensive than the current provider, but I suppose you get what you pay for.

Jan 12

A friend recommends I get the “triple play” package from the cable company which includes the TV which we already get, ISP, and even telephone all over one wire. The cost is reputedly less that we pay right now for all 3 services from 3 different providers. The current ISP now says that the outage problem is being addressed and without saying when even approximately, suggests that it will be dealt with “soon”. If total down time for this ends up at less than a week, I'll be pleasantly surprised. D'wife says the cable service out here in the boondocks is not without interruptions although these typically don't last over ½ hour max.

Jan 13

D'wife says I don't want to know what we're paying for all 3 services since if I did I'd probably cancel all 3 once I got out of the coronary care unit. This is patently nonsense as she watches the TV all day and when I'm not working, I play on the internet. As to the phone, we both have cell phones and frankly far too many people named “Unavailable” seem to have my land line number so maybe I wouldn't miss that one much.

OK it's back some time around noon. Still no idea what caused it. Probably the Norks. No one was killed or eaten so all's well that ends well.

Betting On The Elections

Bettors (Punters) will give you the odds on anything and put their own money on being right. Pollsters do as well although there's less of a premium on being right the further out the outcome is. So what the heck, here is a site set up in England where this sort of thing is legal that posts the odds for all the primary candidates as well as for the general election.

A word of warning would be that the earlier in the campaign you are, the more you run the risk of a "black swan" event happening downstream that turns everything upside down. Still, they are currently giving Hillary a 56% chance of winning the general election with Rubio the most likely pick to be running against her.

Election betting odds is updated every 5 minutes for your enjoyment. Bookmark the link and check back around the first of each month.

Obamas FFL Remarks

If I were a rough government agency actively supporting a wannabe dictator, my interpretation of the presidents remarks regarding "unlicensed gun dealers" would cause me to have a letter/email ginned up stating in the most hostile tone of voice that it is illegal to be engaged in the business of buying and selling guns without an FFL. Note that I did not define "business". Let 'em guess. Just copy and past the whole statute into the letter in paragraph 1.

Paragraph 2 states that if the recipient is in fact  a licensed dealer, then please reply with a copy of their license and a valid photo ID.

Paragraph 3 states that if the recipient is not a licensed dealer, then they must reply with a complete explanation of why they would not be considered one with supporting documentation and a copy of a valid photo ID. Documentation should consist of the make, model, and serial numbers of any and all firearms purchased or sold in the last year. If you are not doing business in firearms, please include photos and descriptions of the merchandise you are selling and a determination will be made as to the validity of your claim. Buying and selling small numbers of firearms for your own use is acceptable. File your papers within 14 days and we'll tell you if you're going to jail.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Bureau of harassment.

This letter/e-mail would be sent to everyone with a posting on a gun brokering internet site and all purchasers of tables at all gun shows.

I doubt that this would slow down the sales of guns any, but I'm sure it would reduce the number of background checks the FBI is having to perform as all private sales would go underground and gun shows would disappear.

Obamacare - It's The Thought That Counts

Republicans have figured out how to get a bill through the congress that the Dems don't approve of without having to have a 60 vote majority in the Senate. The bill in question would not repeal Obamacare but would gut it to the point of not mattering much. Full details on Reason.

Of course the big reason no one is squealing much on the left is that a presidential veto is assured, so don't worry about any consequences. Oddly Reason faults the Republicans for not including an alternative scenario to fill in for the law they propose to eliminate. Let me suggest that if you have a cancer and the doctor proposes to surgically excise it, you DON'T ask him what he plans to replace it with.

But since they ask anyway, let me suggest trying free market capitalism. It has worked in the past after all.

Blood Donations and Beer

Bonfils Blood Center is as always soliciting for donations to cover the perpetual shortages. The current draw (!) is a coupon good for a free pint at any Rock Bottom restaurant, Old Chicago or Gordon Biersch Brewery. in return for your pint at Bonfils.

“There are also some people who believe that if you drink a Guinness the night before you donate platelets that your platelet count goes up,” Gibasom said. “That’s not scientifically proven.”

Why take chances. Have a pint tonight, give a pint tomorrow, and have another pint tomorrow night. It's for a good cause and the advancement of science.

President Exceeds Expectations, Sets New Record

In spite of not being very good at a lot of things, there's one thing the president consistently excels at and that's his stimulation of gun sales. After failure after failure in foreign policy or domestic, Economics or race relations, he eventually pivots to gun control where he seems to be capable of driving sales through the roof and into the clouds.

The 2015 NICS numbers are in:

December NICS checks totaled 3,314,594 eclipsing the previous monthly high of 2,783,765 set in December of 2012 when having just been re-elected he promised to make gun control a priority of his second term. The total for 2015 is 23,141,170 implying that some 16.4MM firearms fell into the hands of US citizens last year, some of whom even seem to have voted for Obama.

I attribute this to the racial healing, notably in Ferguson and Baltimore, and the progress he's made in the war on terror notably in Waco and San Berdoo.

Keep in mind that Hillary has promised to try to top this performance if she's elected. Anti-gunners should be out there rooting for Trump or Cruz if they actually want to see gun sales decline.

SWATing - One Department's Dim View

As of this year, if you have a CCW in Texas, it's your option to carry discreetly or openly. This has some of the bliss ninnies in a tizzy with calls to SWAT anyone seen to be carrying a gun. This means lying to the police about the gun carriers behavior in an attempt to either discourage the carry or get the carrier killed by the cops.

“You see a GunFilth waving its penis substitute, exit, call police. Armed robbery in progress.” — Twitter user “Little Black Dog” on Sept. 13, 2014
—Reacting to a photograph of a man standing at a checkout with a handgun holstered upon his hip, a “mom-who-demands-action” Joyce Ward asks, “Why weren’t the police called immediately?” And “why,” Ward continues, “wasn’t he shot by the police for having a weapon?”
—Fellow poster Lisa McLogan Shaheen has a similar inquiry, wondering, “Why hasn’t someone called 911 so the cops can gun him down?”

The Houston police take a dim view of this sort of thing and with unbelievable politesse suggest that if they get such a call they will investigate carefully and if the call turns out to be bogus, the investigation will be turned to the caller. Filing a false report is I believe a misdemeanor in most places. Maybe there should be the same modifier to this statute that most other crimes have. If a firearm is involved, then it becomes a felony.

RTWT at Gunssavelife.

Cooking The Books - Government Stats

The latest reports from the government are that unemployment is down and inflation is non-existant. The way they calculate it, this may be true, but for the rest of us things are not so hot
Here is a chart on Vox that shows that while yes, more people are finding jobs, the rate at which they're finding them is truly abysmal. It also notes that people are giving up on the job market faster than they are finding jobs.

Just remember: If you're not looking, you don't count as unemployed, thus reducing the unemployment rate. Another item to keep in mind when the news folk read the headlines is that it takes 300,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth in this country. 200,000 new jobs created sounds good compared to say last month, but it represents about 100,000 more people out of work.

The other bit about the near zero inflation contrasts with my observations of people going on Social Security at the earliest opportunity. These people aren't retiring, they're taking the reduced SS payments as a supplement to incomes that no longer cover their expenses. This sort of thing puts larger demands on the federal budget, which requires either a tax increase or more borrowing, which reduces the amount people have to live on which increases demand for SS enrollments.

Economics is not a strong suit with the left.

O'Bungler Proposes National UBC

That's Universal Background Checks which makes transfer of a firearm a federal record in all cases. It has been suggested that since we in Colorado already have such a law, it would have little or no effect on gun transfers here.

 I would expect that such a regulation* would have little effect at the Federal level either since it is largely ignored at the state level. See: Irish Democracy. Meantime, drop a line to your congresscritters suggesting that this action is beyond the scope of the presidency and that the administration needs to be reminded of this.

*It's a regulation since the president supposedly can't make law. Only the congress can make law unless they abrogate their authority to an unelected bureau, answerable only to the president.

Ghost Ring Sights

The ruinous competition of capitalism strikes again I guess. With another fellow selling pretty much the same thing at this price I suppose I need to match it or find myself with a bunch of very small paperweights so the price for Billlls Bullseye Sight is now reduced to $10/ea. At that price there is no discount for quantity. Sorry.

Click the PayPal link in the left column.

New Old Technology

Here's a company that claims to "soon" be able to re-animate the dead. Soon is here understood to mean "by 2045" which is far enough out to avoid lawsuits from anyone with a direct inrerest in the project.

Big deal. The Chicago Democrats have had this technology for well over 50 years now as long as you're happy that the only evidence of Uncle Desmond's reanimation is the voting records.