Some Days I Look Wistfully Towards Nevada

Excise tax on gasoline in CA goes up by 3.5 cents in July:
See here:  gas-tax-california-rise-july

The Democrat super majority is starting to flex its muscles.  They know they can do almost anything they want now.

Update:  Actually the Legislature gave the Excise Board the power to adjust the tax several years ago.  They use a very complicated formula that mostly revolves around total revenue desired and total gallons sold.  Since fewer gallons are being sold, due to the success of fuel efficient vehicle that the Board promotes, revenue is falling.  And we can't have that can we?

Update 2:  From Diane Harkey, Assemby Rep from Dana Point:

"...we had a tax increase that sneaked into the mix as part of the 2011 budget deal. CalTax is reporting the following: "The 'fuel tax swap' adopted by the Legislature and signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 requires the Board of Equalization to set the gas tax rate annually to raise an amount of revenue that would have been generated under the prior law that imposed a tax of 18 cents per gallon, along with the state sales tax on gasoline. The new system was put in place in exchange for repealing the sales tax on gasoline, and the State Board of Equalization on a 3-2 vote approved the increase to the gas tax of 3.5 cents per gallon, effective July 1."  So, the lesson learned? What the government giveth it taketh away.

 

More Dangerous than...Just about Everything

The new anti-gun laws in NY State make it is more dangerous to own a high-cap magazine than to be involved with child pornography.

In Maryland, new laws (Senate Bill 281 just passed) may make it a $1000 fine and up to 3 years in prison for making each inadvertent paperwork mistake.  This is more punishment than for aggravated assault.  All gun stores and manufacturers will be subject to annual audits of their paper work.  If passed, the danger of possible prosecution of owners or employees will probably force most stores to close down and most manufacturers to move out of state. 

Manufacturers involved include Beretta, Benelli and Stoeger.  Beretta USA has 400 employees.  Guns banned by the bill include six Benelli shotguns with pistol grips.

See the interview with Beretta's General Counsel Jeff Reh on the Feb 28th edition on Cam and Company on www.nranews.com. 

The Side of the Oscars the Press Didn't Cover

From Heritage Foundation:

The Best Part of the Oscars 2013

America has been buzzing about the dresses, the stars, the winners, and the hit films all week. But the most important part of the Oscars is a real-life drama that is still playing out.

It is not unusual for Hollywood actors to use their stardom to bring attention to human rights and humanitarian causes. But it is surprising when they do so in an effort to do right by U.S. national security.

This is what Zero Dark Thirty actors Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke did when they called for the release of Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the U.S. track Osama bin Laden, at Sunday’s annual Academy Awards. Zero Dark Thirty, the story of the hunt for bin Laden, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

A full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter had urged the members of the Zero Dark Thirty cast and crew to highlight the travesty of the Afridi case. Noting that “without Dr. Afridi’s sacrifice, we may not have pinpointed the world’s most dangerous terrorist,” the ad also asked, “Who will stand up to help America if this is how we treat our friends?”

Dr. Afridi, a Pakistani citizen, was picked up by the Pakistani authorities a few weeks after the May 2, 2011, raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The doctor, at the behest of the U.S., apparently led a phony vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in an attempt to secure DNA evidence from the residents living inside the bin Laden compound. Afridi was unable to obtain the samples, but U.S. officials have acknowledged he provided information that helped U.S. officials locate bin Laden.

Some media reports indicate that Dr. Afridi may have turned down an offer from the U.S. government to leave the country immediately after the bin Laden raid. While in hindsight, his decision was terribly ill-advised, Afridi says he never imagined he would be punished for helping to locate the architect of 9/11.

In May 2012, after he had been held for a year, a Pakistani tribal court sentenced Afridi to 33 years in jail on trumped-up charges that he had cooperated with militants in the tribal border areas.

The real reason the Pakistanis convicted Afridi? Wounded pride. Pakistani military officials were livid about the U.S. decision to pursue the bin Laden operation unilaterally. But making Shakil Afridi the scapegoat for their anger is not acceptable. While some Pakistanis say their country is justified in detaining Afridi because he committed “espionage,” the fact is that Dr. Afridi’s cooperation with the CIA benefited the national security of Pakistan—not to mention every other civilized nation on the planet.

And let’s not forget that the man he helped the Navy SEALs target was not a Pakistani himself, but an international outlaw, an enemy of both our nations.

The silence of the Obama Administration on the Afridi case has been disheartening. In his hearing to be confirmed as Secretary of State, John Kerry downplayed the Pakistanis’ lack of cooperation in freeing Afridi. He chose to throw his weight behind the Pakistani government instead, saying, “We need to build our relationship with the Pakistanis, not diminish it.”

In reality, it is the Pakistani government that has “diminished” ties through its handling of the Afridi case in such a petty and ham-handed fashion.

Pakistani military officials must stop viewing the bin Laden raid as a slight and instead recognize the threat terrorists pose to their own country’s future. Ongoing tensions between Pakistan and the U.S. put both countries at a disadvantage in fighting terrorists.

Pakistan’s prosecution of Dr. Afridi on trumped-up charges not only reflects poorly on Pakistan’s counterterrorism credentials, but it also makes a mockery of rule of law in the country. Pakistani leaders are reinforcing why the U.S. acted unilaterally against bin Laden in the first place and why international trust in Pakistan’s commitment to fighting the terrorist scourge remains elusive. Hollywood has taken up a worthy cause to free a man that has helped make the world safer from global terrorism. Now it’s time for the Obama Administration to show the same commitment to helping this real-life hero.

Europeanization of the United States

To be a conservative, to me, means to be a person who appreciates the well-proven advances made in past times as key to understanding how new proposals in law and social development should be judged and accepted or rejected.  Underlying this is a belief in individual freedom, rule of law, moral rules set by natural or religious tradition, and conservative fiscal principles.

To be liberal, in my observation, seems to be to accept a system of legal and social development that often relies on fads of the moment, a drive toward "equality" of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity, and a simplistic reliance on the rule of government, often to the deferrence of liberties, plus an disregard for basic economics.

I have found a summary of much of my viewpoint and the impact on the U.S in an interview with author Samuel Gregg about his new book, ”Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future.”  See the interview here: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/27/california-illinois-and-new-york-have-have-more-or-less-become-european-argues-author/

He calls the effect "Europeanization" as a new term to describe a modern synthesis of socialistic, liberal, and large, omni-powered central government social designs.  The European Union is the example of how these ideas are producing stagnating economies populated by citizens who have, in general, lost much of their will toward individualistic effort to better themselves, instead exchanging liberties for the safety net bequeathed by a state that strives "mother" them.

 

Some Gun Facts

There is so much erroneous crap being thrown around about gun statistics.  I might as well add some that I know to be pretty firm.  In round numbers and in no particular order:

1.  In Canada, where the Long Gun Registry was destroyed last year after 15 years, only 4% of long guns used in crimes were ever registered.
2.  In the US, the murder rate using any type of rifle is less than that from death by blunt instrument.
3.  New Zealand police forces implored their government to discontinue their gun registry.
4.  In the US, less than 3% of crimes with guns are committed with rifles.  Less than 1% with so-called "assault rifles."  In 2011, 8583 murders per FBI; 323 with any rifle type.  Compare with 98,000 medical error deaths; about 13000 murders with hammers and clubs; about 17000 with hands and feet; about 43000 with knives.
5.  Probability of being struck by lightning:  1 in 1 million.  Probability of being murdered with a gun: 1 in 3 million.  (Ref: Time Magazine)
6. Gun permit applications (to own, not just carry concealed) have more than doubled in Newtown, Conn. since the school shootings.
7.  BS from gun controllers:  In ten years, of 1.7 million initial NICS denials.  But 95% were false positives.
8.  BS from gun controllers:  40% of sales at gun shows are not legal with background checks.  Actually, 40% in a hugely false number.

Obama's Queeg Moment

From American Spectator:  his-queeg-moment

His Queeg Moment

By Hal G.P. Colebatch on 1.29.13 @ 6:07AM

A perspective on our president from Down Under.

In Herman Wouk’s classic World War II novel, The Caine Mutiny, there is a moment when a group of the ship’s officers are getting away from the increasingly eccentric Captain Queeq by relaxing ashore.

Suddenly the malcontent Lieutenant Keefer asks the others: “Does it occur to you that Captain Queeg may be insane?

In fact Queeg is not insane, at least not at that time. He is simply grappling, more and more disastrously, with a job too big for him. Come the crisis of a typhoon, he becomes paralyzed and nearly sinks the ship by failing to give the obvious orders. At the subsequent court-martial he appears quite normal until he breaks down under the pressure of cross-examination. Before this, the officers have searched the regulations for guidance, but the regulations refer only to a captain who is clearly and unmistakably insane, not one who is merely guilty of eccentricity and bad judgment. At a lower level of responsibility, Queeg might have performed adequately, but with Keefer’s question, the remaining respect for Queeg’s office has gone.

Obama’s second inauguration speech may be his Queeg moment — an undeniable demonstration that, in an emergency, he is incapable of grappling with reality. For all his unceasing invocation of the word “change,” the outstanding thing about Obama has been his apparent inability to react, even to an imminent crisis. Like Queeg, he stands frozen on the bridge as the waves grow higher, or obsesses over issues like homosexuals and women in the military as the typhoon rises.

Faced with the worst looming fiscal cliff-fall in world history Obama, like Queeg in the typhoon, has done nothing at all, but has, increasingly, resorted to meaningless words. His pseudo-Keynesian fiscal notions and a mantra-like repetition of old and failed ideas, suggest a serious lack on mental versatility.

Economics is not an exact science, but some of its rules are now well-known, and one is that a government cannot spend its way out of a recession.

Yet Obama does not project any sense of urgency, merely a smug, radiating sense of his own greatness. The one fiscal measure to which he seems committed — taxing the rich — is infantile stuff, like Queeg’s obsession with who ate the wardroom strawberries. Any first-year politics or economics student knows that there are not enough rich, even in as wealthy a country as the United States, to have raising their taxes make any appreciable difference. President Reagan’s application of the Laffer Curve proved emphatically, and only a short while ago, that the way to both stimulate the economy and to increase government revenues is to lower taxes. And it is not hard to pick some areas as least where towering taxes would make no appreciable difference to public infrastructure.

Like Queeg, Obama shows an inability to change course when such a change is desperately needed. Giving 20 F-16 fighters and hundred of tanks to Egypt was never, in my opinion, a clever idea. Even when Egypt was an unequivocal friend its security required things like armored cars to put down street violence, not these hi-tech weapons whose only conceivable use would be against Israel. Indeed, Obama seems to show no awareness that Egypt and other major Islamic countries have changed from being friends to something like enemies in a few months. For a President of the United States there is a difference between making a bad policy choice and clinging to that policy when it is plainly completely wrong, like the Caine steaming in a circle and cutting its own tow-line. Mistakes that cannot be ignored are always someone else’s fault (refer George Bush).

The dancing is still there, the golf, the celebs, the multi-million dollar holidays, but behind them it is possible to detect a desperate emptiness, a interconnected mosaic of failure. The one much-boasted triumph, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, was the work of other men. One of those most responsible, Dr. Shakil Afridi, rots in the hellhole of a Pakistani jail, abandoned. Obama’s oath to bring the Benghazi murderers to justice seems to have been forgotten as soon as it was made, something — I am not sure if there is a word for it — actually below the level of a campaign promise. Allies have been lost or slighted in almost every part of the world, the Afghan war has brought the U..S and NATO humiliation and Russia and China lead in Space. The defenses of the U.S.’s major allies, such as Britain, are in an even more dire situation.

This does not even consider the exploding levels of domestic poverty. Restoring flexibility to the wage system, so as to give American industry a reasonable degree of competitiveness, seems out of the question.

The Western position in Mali seems to have suddenly collapsed without warning, or without preventative action being taken, and meanwhile, we have had the North Korean threat. I somehow doubt we would have had that if Reagan had been at the helm. What, exactly have things come to when a cockroach of a country, apparently run by real, certifiable lunatics, can threaten the United States with nuclear weapons? The typhoon waves are starting to break over the bridge.

The Human Cost of Complexity and Bureaucracy

I found this post at HotAir by happenstance.  It starts as a story about a man in Seattle importing a boat from Canada and how the DHS Customs official tried to get him to swear to a simple lie on a form.  It ends with a more important observation by Scott Adams (Dilbert author) about how the complexity of modern life is swamping our brains with trivia, leaving little room for knowledgeable thought.

See here:  dhs-steals-techcrunch-founders-boat-over-paperwork-error

Now for the additional humor and followup, see here:
the-department-of-homeland-security-is-now-bitching-at-me-on-my-blog/

If you can stand it, be sure to read some of the comments to the blog.  I'll never understand how so many people can express so much vitriol for someone they don't know.  At least the conversation gets a little more civil later on.

Joe Biden advises Committing a Felony in Delaware

The Vice-President, who is leading President Obama's (mostly) ill-advised gun control efforts, advised his wife Jill, and other women-at-home, to fire to two shotgun blasts into the air to thwart would-be burglars.

See here:  joe-biden-shotgun-advice-could-land-jill-biden-in-jail

Of course, in Delaware this is discharging a firearms in public, which is a misdemeanor at least.

It is also a poor way to protect yourself, since you would be:
1. Disarmed after shooting two rounds from a double barreled shotgun
2. Outside on the balcony where you are a target
3. Announcing your location so the crooks could attack more easily

Basically, the Veep is displaying the lack of gun knowledge that is so sadly so common to so many Liberals.  Anyone who follows his advice will be have along conversation with the local police, if they survive.


Update:  The blogosohere is having fun at Joe's expense, not that he doesn't deserve it:
Humorous-women-take-joe-bidens-buy-a-shotgun-advice/

Update:  Joe has some more advice that can land you in jail:  Shoot shotgun through the door:
biden-advises-shooting-shotgun-through-door

Chicago Police Chief Doesn't Have a Clue

Chicago is currently one of the murder capitals of the USA, with 513 last year and a higher rate so far this year.  Yet the Police Chief Garry McCarthy seems to think he know best.  He ably demonstrated his ignorance (real or willful) about the Constitution last week when he said only muskets should be allowed.

Dana Loesch at Red State has a good article:

See here: Chicago-police-chief-second-amendment-is-a-danger-to-public-safety

There are a few great links in the article too.

Evan Todd - Columbine Survivor

Evan Todd was injured at the Columbine School.  He has written an open letter to President Barack Obama this week in which he categorically rejects gun control measures. He asks the President, “Whose Side Are You On?”

Todd joined Cam & Company on February 21, 2013 to talk about his experiences and why he strongly opposes gun control legislation.  Click on www.nranews.com.  Select Viewing Guide.  Select Archives.  Select Feb 21 and scroll down to interview.  (Link is good for a week from now.)

See also Business Insider article:  Evan Todd Letter to President Obama

Read Todd's full letter, courtesy of The Blaze:

Mr. President,

As a student who was shot and wounded during the Columbine massacre, I have a few thoughts on the current gun debate. In regards to your gun control initiatives:

Universal Background Checks

First, a universal background check will have many devastating effects. It will arguably have the opposite impact of what you propose. If adopted, criminals will know that they can not pass a background check legally, so they will resort to other avenues. With the conditions being set by this initiative, it will create a large black market for weapons and will support more criminal activity and funnel additional money into the hands of thugs, criminals, and people who will do harm to American citizens.

Second, universal background checks will create a huge bureaucracy that will cost an enormous amount of tax payers dollars and will straddle us with more debt. We cannot afford it now, let alone create another function of government that will have a huge monthly bill attached to it.

Third, is a universal background check system possible without universal gun registration? If so, please define it for us. Universal registration can easily be used for universal confiscation. I am not at all implying that you, sir, would try such a measure, but we do need to think about our actions through the lens of time.

It is not impossible to think that a tyrant, to the likes of Mao, Castro, Che, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and others, could possibly rise to power in America. It could be five, ten, twenty, or one hundred years from now — but future generations have the natural right to protect themselves from tyrannical government just as much as we currently do. It is safe to assume that this liberty that our forefathers secured has been a thorn in the side of would-be tyrants ever since the Second Amendment was adopted.

Ban on Military-Style Assault Weapons

The evidence is very clear pertaining to the inadequacies of the assault weapons ban. It had little to no effect when it was in place from 1994 until 2004. It was during this time that I personally witnessed two fellow students murder twelve of my classmates and one teacher. The assault weapons ban did not deter these two murderers, nor did the other thirty-something laws that they broke.

Gun ownership is at an all time high. And although tragedies like Columbine and Newtown are exploited by ideologues and special-interest lobbying groups, crime is at an all time low. The people have spoken. Gun store shelves have been emptied. Gun shows are breaking attendance records. Gun manufacturers are sold out and back ordered. Shortages on ammo and firearms are countrywide. The American people have spoken and are telling you that our Second Amendment shall not be infringed.

10-Round Limit for Magazines

Virginia Tech was the site of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Seung-Hui Cho used two of the smallest caliber hand guns manufactured and a handful of ten round magazines. There are no substantial facts that prove that limited magazines would make any difference at all.
Second, this is just another law that endangers law-abiding citizens. I’ve heard you ask, “why does someone need 30 bullets to kill a deer?”

Let me ask you this: Why would you prefer criminals to have the ability to out-gun law-abiding citizens? Under this policy, criminals will still have their 30-round magazines, but the average American will not. Whose side are you on?

Lastly, when did they government get into the business of regulating “needs?” This is yet another example of government overreaching and straying from its intended purpose.

Selling to Criminals

Mr. President, these are your words: “And finally, Congress needs to help, rather than hinder, law enforcement as it does its job. We should get tougher on people who buy guns with the express purpose of turning around and selling them to criminals. And we should severely punish anybody who helps them do this.”

Why don’t we start with Eric Holder and thoroughly investigate the Fast and Furious program?

Furthermore, the vast majority of these mass murderers bought their weapons legally and jumped through all the hoops —  because they were determined to murder. Adding more hoops and red tape will not stop these types of people. It doesn’t now — so what makes you think it will in the future? Criminals who cannot buy guns legally just resort to the black market.

Criminals and murderers will always find a way.

Critical Examination

Mr. President, in theory, your initiatives and proposals sound warm and fuzzy — but in reality they are far from what we need. Your initiatives seem to punish law-abiding American citizens and enable the murderers, thugs, and other lowlifes who wish to do harm to others.

Let me be clear: These ideas are the worst possible initiatives if you seriously care about saving lives and also upholding your oath of office. There is no dictate, law, or regulation that will stop bad things from happening — and you know that. Yet you continue to push the rhetoric. Why?

You said, “If we can save just one person it is worth it.” Well here are a few ideas that will save more that one individual:

First, forget all of your current initiatives and 23 purposed executive orders. They will do nothing more than impede law-abiding citizens and breach the intent of the Constitution. Each initiative steals freedom, grants more power to an already-overreaching government, and empowers and enables criminals to run amok.

Second, press Congress to repeal the “Gun Free Zone Act.” Don’t allow America’s teachers and students to be endangered one-day more. These parents and teachers have the natural right to defend themselves and not be looked at as criminals. There is no reason teachers must disarm themselves to perform their jobs. There is also no reason a parent or volunteer should be disarmed when they cross the school line.

This is your chance to correct history and restore liberty. This simple act of restoring freedom will deter would-be murderers and for those who try, they will be met with resistance.

Mr. President, do the right thing, restore freedom, and save lives. Show the American people that you stand with them and not with thugs and criminals.

Respectfully,

Severely Concerned Citizen, Evan M. Todd

Gun Free Zones

The anti-gun crowd loves gun free zones.  Why?  I guess because they see the world the way they think it should be and expect that that will work for everyone.  My wife would call this cognitive dissonance.

Amanda Collins is a young woman with first hand knowledge of gun free zones, this one on a university campus in Nevada.

View video:   Click on www.NRANews.  On the right hand side of screen, scroll through the videos to find the video titled "Would a 'Safe Zone' Stop a Rapist?

Still believe in Gun Free Zones? 

Obama Walks into a Bank...

President Obama walks into the Bank of America to cash a check. As he approaches
the cashier he says, "Good morning Ma'am, could you please cash this check for me?"
Cashier:  "It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID? "
Obama:  "Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn't think there was any need to.
I am President Barack Obama, the President of the United States of AMERICA !!!!"
Cashier:   "Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of impostors and forgers and requirements of the Dodd/Frank legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID."
Obama:  "Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am." Cashier:  "I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them." 
Obama:  "I am urging you, please, to cash this check.” 
Cashier:  "Look Mr. President, here is an example of what we can do. One day, Tiger Woods came into the bank without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check."
 "Another time, Andre Agassi came in without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot whereas the tennis ball landed in my cup. With that shot we cashed his check.  So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States?"
Obama:  Obama stands there thinking, and thinking, and finally says, "Honestly, my mind is a total blank...there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can't think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I don't have a clue".
Cashier: "Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?