Tag: linkery

A Modest Proposal . . .

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A Modest Proposal . . .

Van Der Leun proposes a solution to our economic crisis. Excerpt:

As we all know, the Social Security Administration (SSa) essentially bet, many years ago, that a lot of people who paid into this Mother of All Ponzi Schemes would simply not live to collect their benefits in any significant degree. It was a “You pay but don’t play” sort of deal. As long as the dead suckers outnumbered the living suckers, all was copacetic.

Now that, through the wonders of Medicare, our elderly can suck down benefits for one, two, or even three decades after 65, the Reverse-Ponzi kicks in and people actually get more out than they ever put in. Looking to “get more out than you put in” is, arguably, the attitude that got us into this mess in the first place.

But even now, this cost is still controllable. It merely requires the will.

Read. It. All.

“Made as China, Norinco”

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I’ve blogged about handmade weapons before, but this not-quite eight minute video (h/t: Dave Hardy) is quite enlightening. It’s about the gun manufacturing done in the remote reaches of Pakistan, where people with, essentially, hand tools make perfectly functional copies of antique and modern firearms.

Cheap.

The title of this post comes from the markings on the slide of this pistol:


It looks like a CZ copy. Nine millimeter, $50. And people wonder why the British handgun ban didn’t work.

But hey, if we can put those eeeeevil gun manufacturers out of business, we can end gun violence!

Horseshit. Guns are not a particularly difficult technology, and there are literally hundreds of millions of them already in circulation. Watch the video where young boys are reloading cartridges on the street and packaging them for sale.

But bear in mind, always, The Other Side believes that “too many guns” defines the problem, and therefore the answer must be to REDUCE THE NUMBER.

But they don’t want to ban anything. Just ask ’em.

I Have Been Remiss

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I Have Been Remiss

. . . in reading Mostly Cajun as regularly as I’d like. Here’s today’s Quote of the Day, a mere smidgen of a damned fine rant everybody needs to read:

(Daschle) and the rest of those elitist a**holes sit up there in Washington and direct their lackies to write a tax code that even THEY can’t understand, and they put into place a HUGE bureaucracy to administer those rules, said bureaucracy known to give contradictory opinions of any given part of that tub of rules, and then our OVERLORDS expect us to kowtow to their rules, but they themselves regularly sidestep, obfuscate and just plain ignore those same rules themselves.

You have no idea how much this galls me. I have seen the acusatory letters from the IRS, basically calling me guilty until I prove myself innocent, and threatening all sorts of legal actions against what little resources my socialist overlords deign me to keep for myself and my family. Yet THESE guys get a pass.

THIS, folks, is the stuff of which revolutions are made.

Read the whole thing.

I could not agree more with his concluding paragraph.

I think every sitting and living former member of both houses of Congress and every current and living former President and cabinet member should be subjected to an IRS audit of their last five year’s tax returns.

I’m willing to bet that if our overlords were made subject to the same penalties and interest charges we peons would be subjected to, that little investigative effort would go a long way towards halving the National Debt.

Pitchforks and torches and hemp, oh my!

On the Subject of Rights . . .

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Over the five and a half years I’ve been writing this blog, the topic of Rights has been the most pervasive. In one of the earliest posts, I reprinted a short essay I wrote to win a year’s membership at AR15.com entitled What is a ‘Right’?. That essay inspired a lot of commentary, and a rather extended exchange with a professor of mathematics that makes up the next six posts below it in the “Best Posts” over there near the top of the left sidebar.

And I wrote one more überpost, The United Federation of Planets on that topic as well.

Those are just the ones I thought worth having permanent links to.

Now someone else has decided that the topic is interesting and important enough to dedicate an entire blog to, and since TSM is the current sole resident of his blogroll, I thought I’d give him a link and pass on his invitation to you, my loyal sixteen readers:

I believe that the root cause of many – if not most – of the problems we face today, both domestically and around the world, are due to a basic misunderstanding or misapplication of the concept of “rights”. This blog is my attempt to begin a wide-ranging discussion regarding rights in general, and fundamental / natural / God-given rights in particular. My most ardent hope is that as many people as possible will join me in trying to discover and define what the concept of “rights” actually means, what rights we all have, and how having those rights defines who we are and how we interact as human beings.

My goal is threefold. First, I need to get all of my thoughts and ideas out of my head and put down in writing. This forum will allow me to pick a topic and run with it until I get everything out. Second, I wish to persuade as many people as possible that my ideas are correct, and that adopting them will improve the quality of their lives and the lives of all those with whom they come in contact. And third, the “comments” function will allow for anyone who wishes to do so, to add their own thoughts and ideas regarding whatever I have written. I do not just encourage this – I need it. You see, I believe what I am writing to be objectively true, but in order to test my ideas and beliefs, I need feedback. So please, feel free to comment on anything I write.

He goes by the handle John Galt and blogs at The Rights Project. If you’re interested, take him up on his offer.

UPDATE: Broken link fixed. D’OH!

Machine Guns and Dead Nazis

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Machine Guns and Dead Nazis

My wife and I went to see Defiance yesterday afternoon. I was going to write a review, but – as is my wont – when someone else says something better that I can, I let them:

The basic plot (I won’t ruin it for you) is a gang of paranoid gun crazies who band together and terrorize a benevolent government that the crazies feel like are threatening them.

The crazies run off in the woods like crazies are prone to do, they don’t pay their taxes and are generally hostile to the various government folks trying to help them and solve their problems. It is set in the ancient past that no one cares about anymore. The crazies generally all have relatives that were justifiably killed by the benevolent government who was trying to help them, which makes them mad and what is a crazy if not mad about something.

RTWT, it’s not very long.

For Tam

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For Tam

She’s been waxing poetic about this gorgeous piece of steel created by Cylinder & Slide, but notes that at the $8k custom build price,

If a factory tooled up to produce them, however, they probably wouldn’t cost a lot more than a decent 1911, although they’d have to make up for lack of volume with higher prices, since they’d have to recoup tooling and setup costs over a smaller production run. Springfield or S&W could probably bring it to market for a bit over a grand, street price.

Well, it’s not the same gun, but Cylinder & Slide has this for sale:


It’s right pretty too.

And it’s only $2,995.

Quote of the Day

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There is a very strong possibility that the Court of Appeals will rule against us, not on the merits of the case (which is very strong), but because finding that the Second Amendment is incorporated through the Fourteenth Amendment against the states is a decision above their pay grade. – Clayton Cramer in his post Chicago Gun Case

And I think he’s more than probably right. I’m reminded of 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski’s dissent in the denial to re-hear en banc the Silveira v. Lockyer case, specifically this part:

As an inferior court, we may not tell the Supreme Court it was out to lunch when it last visited a constitutional provision.

Even when it was.

There exists Supreme Court precedent that says that the right of ‘bearing arms for a lawful purpose’ is not protected against state infringement, but only against infringement by Congress – i.e.: the Federal government (U.S. v. Cruikshank, 1875). Cruikshank was decided after ratification of the 14th Amendment, and while it violates the specific, written intent of that amendment, it has never been overturned by the Supreme Court, and it has been used as precedent in an 1886 case, Presser v. Illinois.

And inferior courts may not tell the Supreme Court it was out to lunch when it last visited a constitutional provision.

So don’t be surprised if the 7th Circuit finds against us; be stunned if they don’t. Because that will force the Supreme Court to revisit Cruikshank, and I doubt seriously the 7th Circuit has the testicular fortitude to do that.