The problem in a nutshell

“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.” 
Glenn Reynolds

Flashbacks

So, this one has been sitting in "Drafts" for three years now. No idea where I was going with it. But someone was extolling the virtues of the M60 Machine Gun the other day, and I just happened to remember this, so...

 Flashbacks. Thanks to Tamara, I'm having them. Weaponsman's fault, mostly.

I once had an M60 machine gun that wouldn't fire. I lost track of all the way some genius had found to reassemble it with all the parts -- no "spares" left over -- most of them inserted incorrectly. The hammer was installed backwards and upside down, the gas cylinder was backwards, the trigger group pins were inserted backwards, and the leaf spring was on the wrong side and upside down...

If it had been Basic Training I'd've suspected a test of some sort.

My loathing for the M60 machine gun knows no bounds, since, in addition to the above incident, it has to be held together with baling wire. Well, they'll tell you you're the armorer is using baling wire to make sure that the person who is qualified on and issued it is not performing unauthorized maintenance... including cleaning the gas cylinder. Because it was allegedly simple to clean the gas cylinder, you can just (allegedly) roll it around in the dirt and it'll scour all the caked on carbon right off, but the odds (and risks) of re-inserting it backwards was considered to be too high so not only was it not operator maintenance, but the thing was supposed to be, you guessed it, wired shut.

Also, R.I.P. Weaponsman.

(Edited to add the point about the hammer.)

GOAL Alert 2018-2

Action needed!

or

BOHICA!

***

FROM: GOAL WA (goalwa@cox.net)(Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed recipients

SENT: Sun 2/25/2018 6:27 AM

SUBJECT: GOAL Alert 2018-2

GOAL Alert 2018-2

Legislative alert from Olympia25 February 2018

HOUSE COUNTERPART TO SB 6620

ACTION NEEDED, NOW!

I’d say I’m sorry for the rush of messages, but I’m not.The rush is caused by end-of-session manipulation by Democrat “leadership” in Olympia, and calls for a strong response.

As I have posted frequently, it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.And she’s not scheduled to sing until midnight on 8 March (a week from this coming Thursday). While the legislature sets cut-off dates and other procedural processes to keep bills moving and cull out other bills, the bottom line is that these are not written in the state Constitution, they are internal rules adopted by the legislature and may be changed by the legislature at will.

The House has filed a “counterpart bill”, HB 3004, to SB 6620.A counterpart bill is a verbatim duplicate of the bill filed in the other chamber. If both pass unamended, it/they go straight to the governor for his signature.

SB 6620/HB 3004 is a 14 section, 28 page bill in their words, “Improving security in schools and the safety of our students.” What it is is a Trojan horse, gun control hidden under the guise of the standard Democrat mantra “It’s for the children.”

Part I of the bill is a single section less than one page in length and talks about unspecified funding for “school emergency response systems.” Part II, “Students protecting students,” is three more sections spread over 10 pages and discusses nominally establishes a program whereby students may – anonymously if so desired – report potential threats to school safety and sets out procedures, including court action, to be followed, as well as identity protection for all involved in the process up to and including law enforcement and court personnel.

Part III is the zinger, “Semiautomatic rifles or shotguns with tactical

features.” 18 pages, 24 sections describing the offending firearms as semi-auto rifles or shotguns with detachable magazines (mostly the features such as pistol grip, thumbhole stock, flash hider, grenade launcher – the standard litany of evil features from the federal 1994 Clinton/Feinstein “assault weapon ban”). There are some omissions here but I’m not going to identify them. Please note that these definitions do not include tube-fed firearms or manually operated firearms.

The principal focus in Part III is shifting “semiautomatic rifles and shotguns” to the same category as that applied to handguns: they can only be sold to individuals age 21 and over, and are subject to the additional requirements for handguns: additional state paperwork and waiting periods (with the existing CPL exemption).

Keep in mind, under I-594 ALL firearm transfers must be processed by a licensed dealer, meaning that de facto registration already exists via the FFL’s required record-keeping, but this would effectively add offending semi-auto firearms to the state pistol registry, creating an on-line data base of such firearms.

It also increases the state firearm dealers license fee from $125 to $150.

Text of SB6620: http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2017-18/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/6620.pdf

Text of HB 3004 has not been posted yet, but the bill’s home page is at: http://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=3004&Chamber=House&Year=2017:

It is the intention of legislative “leadership” to ram this bill through before the end of the session.How much time will be given to public testimony remains to be seen – at this point nu public hearings are scheduled.

It is imperative that you contact your legislators as soon as possible to ask that they remove Part III from the bill.Parts I and II are likely legitimate, but Part III is strictly a ploy to use school and children’s safety as a cover for more gun control.

You can find your legislators by visiting: http://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder

Once you find your district, simply scroll down to see your Senator and Representatives listed.Click on their name and it will take you to their information, including a link to e-mail them.

Or you can call the Legislative Hotline toll-free at (800) 562-6000.

We need to flood the legislature with you going on record opposing Part III of SB 6620/HB 3004.

This is just step one on their agenda.There is already discussion of raising the age limit for the purchase of ALL firearms to age 21. The Constitution does not impose an age limit on the exercise of fundamental, enumerated (listed) constitutional rights.Not to mention the fact that you can enlist in the military, or be drafted, and fight for your country at age 18.

If anyone receiving this is attending the WAC gun show in Puyallup today, please make copies of this and take them to the show.Thank you.

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

Posted by: GOAL WA goalwa@cox.net

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

Short read of the day: The Gresham’s Law of Law

Recently started receiving the daily digest from Law & Liberty, maintained by the Liberty Fund, same folks who do the Online Library of Liberty.

Here's an example of why:

 The Gresham's Law of Law - Law & Liberty

by Mike Rappaport

In economics, Gresham’s Law is the law that say “bad money drives out good money.” In law, there is a similar law – deviant or problematic lawmaking drives out orthodox or legitimate lawmaking. This occurs in both constitutional law and administrative law.

Let’s start with constitutional law. The law of the Constitution is supposed to be established through the constitutional enactment process and the constitutional amendment process. Yet, it is well known that the Supreme Court does not always follow this legitimate method of constitutional law making, and instead changes or updates the Constitution through judicial lawmaking.

It is sometimes thought that these two types of lawmaking can coexist, but it has become increasingly clear that this is not the case. Since the New Deal, and especially as the Court has engaged in more judicial updating, the constitutional amendment process has atrophied. The main reason is that a constitutional amendment can only pass if it is supported by a consensus of the country. And developing a consensus may take a long time and may require compromise.

And then there's administrative law. Just as Constitutional Amendments don't happen due to Supreme Court rulings, Congress leaves most rule-making up to unaccountable bureaucrats.

Go read the whole thing, like I said, it's short.

GOAL Post 2018-3

That time of the week again. 

There seems to be a glitch in the original text, in the third paragraph, dealing with new proposed legislation. It is present in the original text; if Joe posts a correction or errata I will fix it. There are also a couple of legislators whose districts are missing from the list of bills, ditto.

As usual, I have made minor edits to the text for punctuation or style, but have made no changes to the actual text.

I had a bit of an unintentional discharge while putting this one together,and accidentally launched what was barely even a draft, so if you get this blog through a feed service, you may have had two versions show up. Apologies.

***

FROM: GOAL WA (Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed recipients

SENT: Fri 1/19/2018 2:34 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2018-3

Legislative Update from Olympia19 January 2018

• LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR CORRECTION
• 1/15 SENATE GUN BILL HEARING
• NEW GUN BILLS FILED
• PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED
• ACTION ON GUN BILLS
• KIRO TV POLL
• NOT ALL DEMOCRATS ARE OUR ENEMIES

The correct date of the Fiscal committee cut-off is 6 February, not 5 February as reported last week.

The first big gun bill hearing was conducted by Senate Law & Justice on Monday, 15 January. There was a turnout of several hundred on both sides, with two overflow rooms filled with attendees (unfortunately the pro-gun lobby doesn’t have a billionaire sugar daddy who provides neat highly visible t-shirts – but most of us DO have gun-related ball caps, club badges, pins, etc.) It was an amazing display of ignorance about guns and gun laws by the pro-gun control side. But that doesn’t stop them and their billionaire allies from pushing for every restriction they can get through the system. The bills heard in public testimony included SBs 592 (trigger devices),6049 (magazine ban), 5444 (modern sporting rifle registration), 5463 (safe storage) and 6146 (preemption repeal). The entire hearing can be viewed on TVWashington at https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2018011154.

Several new gun bills were filed this week... and one I missed last week! SB 6173, by Sen. Takko (D-19) is the counterpart of HB 2329 and strengthens privacy protections for CPL holders (our esteemed Attorney General wants to open CPL information to the public, as it was prior to 1993). HB 2422, by Rep. Peterson (D-21) is similar to SB 1049 and bans high capacity magazines… with exceptions. HB 2529 by Rep. Lovick (D-44) imposes the same background check (re-check requirement on CPLs that have been seized as previous law does was seized firearms, HB 2666, by Rep. Macri (D-43) is the companion bill to SB 6146, repealing state preemption of firearms regulation. SB 6298, by Sen. Dhingra (D-45), would add any conviction for domestic violence harassment to the list of violations forfeiting firearm rights. It’s bad enough that for more than ten years now we have been denying a fundamental, enumerated right to people convicted of what are essentially minor crimes. This is even more egregious I on that most domestic harassment cases consist of largely “he said-she said” testimony, and in today’s climate, the court usually errs on the side of the woman.

Two public hearings on gun bills will be conducted next week. At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 23 January, the Senate Law & Justice Committee will take testimony on SBs 6297 and 6298 (banning possession of firearms for those with a history of violence or who have been convicted of domestic harassment). At 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, 25 January, the House Judiciary Committee will take testimony on HBs 2519 (return of seized CPLs), 2293 (daycare firearm ban), 1387 (a/w registration), 2422 (hi-cap mag ban) and 2666 (preemption repeal). Again, a strong turn-out carries a message all its own. Better yet, if you can make it to Oly for the hearing, be sure to wear some clearly pro-gun item of clothing (not camouflage!) such as a ball cap, club membership badge, etc. (If you have prepared testimony, be sure to carry a spare copy with you and leave it with committee staff.)

SB 5992 (trigger devices) passed out of the Senate Law & Justice Committee on Tuesday and is now on the Senate floor calendar awaiting final passage from the Senate. They will likely vote on it next week.

A KIRO TV poll conducted earlier this week showed 66% of respondents do NOT support a ban on bump stocks. I went back a couple of days later to see if it had changed – and it HAD changed… it was pulled!

Not all Republicans are our friends, and not all Democrats are our enemies. The link below goes to a great article about two pro-gun Democrats (and yes, they are solidly pro-gun, as are a few others; I’ve worked closely with both of them for several years). http://tdn.com/news/local/takko-and-blake-could-scuttle-raft-of-gun-control-bills/article_f46063f4-f0e8-576a-928d-d32ba6060cfd.html

BILL NUMBER/SUBJECT/SPONSOR/STATUS/GOAL POSITION:

PSA, Cybersecurity Edition

Generating a Bunch Of "Internet Noise" Isn't Going to Hide Your Browsing Habits

I thought that was obvious, but maybe that's because traffic analysis is what I do did.

Note that the guy who wrote the "Internet Noise" app actually says in his write up of the thing that it's "protest-ware", not an actual privacy/security app.

Which seems pointless, but what do I know? If it makes you happy to clog system resources in a gesture the people you're protesting at won't even notice, go for it.

Earworm, 04/01/2017 -- Fed Up Edition

So, I haven't discussed my new job... and I'm not going to.

But I keep running into situations where my training was rushed, partly because they needed me to take over a shift, and partly because (in all modesty) they figured I was good enough to hit the ground running and do the job.

And, (again, in all modesty) mostly they've been right, except I keep finding things they never told me.

So last night a semi-annual report needs to be run, and I do. I've used this report before, and it was a pain in the fourth point of contact, because it's always been sorted on the wrong parameter. Maybe the choice didn't exist before, but now it does, so I sort it in numerical order by account number instead of alphabetical order by division or department, because there are too many divisions within each department, and many of the divisions across different departments have similar names, so, in the words of a colleague, you'd tell a customer to go for coffee while you find their account.

She added "You're the first person to make this report usable!"

Naturally, I got bitched at for doing it wrong.

So...

GOAL Post 2017-7

Bunch of bills died this week, alas, not all of them deserved to die.  

And, of course, we can see them again if the legislative session goes into overtime, or next year, or as ballot Initiatives. IMHO, the ballot initiative process in WA highlights the drawbacks of pure democracy, in that there are few if any safeguards built into the system. Also oligarchy, considering the regularity with which the legislature ignores ballot initiatives it dislikes. Usually those which attempt to reign in their power, duh.

***

FROM: GOAL WA <goalwa@cox.net> (Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed recipients

SENT: Fri 2/17/2017 3:09 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2017-7

Legislative Update from Olympia 17 February 2017

• GOAL POST DISTRIBUTION ISSUES
• NEW BILLS COVERED
• POLICY COMMITTEE CUT-OFF PASSES, BILLS DIE
• FISCAL COMMITTEE CUT-OFF NEXT FRIDAY
• MOST ACTION SHIFTS TO THE FLOOR  

GOAL Post 2017-6 was published last Friday, but apparently did not receive complete distribution.

I’ve been publishing GOAL Post since 2000, primarily in direct e-mail format through my home ISP.  As the subscriber list grew, I broke it up into segments of about 200 names each.  Every Friday night during session, no problem.  Compose message, hit “send” button, and it magically goes out of my mailbox into yours.   Try wagoal.org or on Facebook its Gun Owners Action League of Washington.

Until last Friday, when all of the batches were kicked back, theoretically as spam.  I will continue to try e-mail, but I’m working on alternatives, among them, posting GOAL Post on the web pages of the Washington Arms Collectors and the Washington State Rifle & Pistol Association.  About 18 months ago, a friend and co-worker created a “GOAL” web site which I never paid much attention to, as he merely posted the current GOAL Post during session.  Unfortunately he passed away last year, and at this point I cannot access the site.   

Two more bills I should have been tracking deal with firearms in the broader sense, but do not come under RCW 9.41, our state’s firearms code.  HB 1270, by Rep. Harmsworth (R-43) encourages voluntary use of firearm locking devices by offering a tax saving.  A similar law waiving the sales tax on gun safes was passed nearly 20 years ago.  HB 1612, by Rep. Orwall (D-33) expands on the suicide prevention program initiated last year, and supported by gun rights organizations.  Both bills are still alive.

Tonight is the first major cut-off day, when all bills must pass out of their policy committee.  Those that are not moving forward are most likely dead for the session.  That’s about 2/3 of them, good or bad.   The “Bill Status” column below shows the current status for each bill we’re tracking.   Basically, if it doesn’t have a position in Rules or a fiscal committee, it’s dead for the session.

Remember, nothing is really “dead” until the fat lady sings, on April 23rd.  While rare, extraordinary action may be taken to revive a bill, or even file a new one.  

The good news is that Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s flagship bills banning and/or registering so-called “assault weapons” all died in committee.  They tried to salvage the registration bill in the House by watering it down, narrowing the definition of “assault weapon,” deleting magazines, eliminating the annual licensing, etc, but even that couldn’t get the required votes to get out.  Stand by for an initiative.  The House version of the safe storage bill DID pass, but in amended and watered down form.  It’s still a bad bill, as well as totally unnecessary – current reckless endangerment law already covers the topic.  Unfortunately almost all pro-gun bills died as well.

Bills that have a significant fiscal impact have an additional week to pass out of one of the fiscal committees.  That cut-off is next Friday.  Keep in mind this is the biennial budget year, and if they fail to pass a budget, we could be looking at one or more special sessions, as happened a couple of years ago.  

The next critical cut-off is March 8^th, when bills must pass out of their original chamber (House bills out of the House, Senate bills out of the Senate).  If they don’t make the cut, they’re nominally dead.  Most action will be on the chamber (House or Senate) floor, where bills will be debated and passed… or not.  After March 8^th, those bills that passed out of their original chamber will go through the same process – on the other side:  committee hearing and possible action, fiscal committee action if required, then into the Rules committees while awaiting a full chamber (floor) vote.

All bills considered on the floor are subject to a roll call vote.  Because of their numbers (98 members), the House does it by machine – a quick red-green machine vote, called the Christmas tree (probably the only politically correct Christmas tree in the capitol).  The Senate, with only 49 members, does it the old fashioned way – a roll call voice vote.

(To give you an idea of the magnitude of a legislative session, nearly 2,300 bills have been filed so far in this session.  As stated before, many are filed, few receive action.)

Earworm, 12/23/2016

Sometimes I need to not share the events of the day by texting a peer who is off...

...Sorry.

An observation about bureaucracy

Stolen fair and square:

If New Coke had been a gov't program, it'd be the only cola available today, and it would cost $20/bottle.

— Drang (@DWDrang) October 6, 2016

Short Takes

Things I feel like I ought to have something for, but not a lot...

***

Burlington: How many heard the shooter described as "Hispanic-looking" and thought "Oh, bioy here we go again"?

Now, a 20 year old Turk living in America for years may or may not be a Muslim, or a devout one,at any rate, but I can just picture the meeting where some brasshat vetted the APB and said "Yeah, so what does 'Levantine' mean again? Yeah, that's what I thought, no."

At least the warnings against "backlash" don't seem as severe as usual. Or even the media are getting tired of them.

OTOH, I haven't been watching the press conferences because every time they come  on there's Governor Inslee hinting at gun control to come...

Even if all he had was what looks like a Ruger 10/22. Damned Fudd guns.

BTW, that mall which is said to have been posted, I am told that only the theater there is posted.  Like many states with licensed carry, IF every public entrance  is clearly posted, then you can be asked to leave if caught; if you return armed, or refuse to leave, you can be charge with misdemeanor trespass.

***

Charlotte: Looks to me like, even if he didn't have a gun in his hand, the police had every reason to believe he was going for one.

And even if they were wrong, burning down the city is not a good way to get your point across. Look what it did for my hometown...

Also, blocking the Interstate is not a good idea, especially when you ar doing it in such a manner as to give motorists reason to believe that you are threatening them with grave bodily harm.

You might then give them reason to believe that their best course of action will be to put it in drive (or maybe "low") and move forward. 

• Reginald Denny
• Marian Pyszko 

Note that "drive on" is not meant to mean "deliberately run people down." But is they are pounding on your car, yelling threats, throwing rocks, trying to rock it and overturn it, well, they're playing stupid games, they should be prepared to win stupid prizes.

***

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners has determines that the proper response of Los Angeles' Finest to armed suspects should be to... run away.

LAPPL - Los Angeles Police Protective League: Police Commission tells officers to run away, or else

The officers didn’t run away. The Commission, armed with video and their own political agenda broke down the footage frame by frame to determine that in the course of seconds, the first officer whose “position initially provided Officer C with a position of tactical advantage” lost the advantage as the suspect charged him. They wrote, “this advantage rapidly diminished as the Subject continued her advance, leaving him with neither distance nor effective cover as the Subject approached the space between two parked vehicles by which Officer C was located.”

Suspect charging from the front. Vehicles on either side. Where do you “redeploy?” Run backwards. This is absurd and it’s dangerous. What happens if the officer loses his footing with a charging suspect? What happens if the suspect runs into a nearby home or store and confronts its occupants with her weapon? What if the suspect also had a concealed gun? What is created when an officer turns tail and runs away is a large target. It’s called a back. The officer would put their lives in further jeopardy by running away if the suspect had a gun. At this close range, running away would create a self-caused danger to the officers and the public.

Chief Beck, who has absolutely no problem finding fault with officers, agreed with these officers’ actions. The Commission, with a grand total of zero years of experience in law enforcement, overruled the Chief’s decision. The Commissioners created an alternative set of facts that acknowledged that the officer was right to believe his life was in jeopardy but found fault with the officer shooting the knife-wielding suspect because the officer should have run away.

Hmmm, I wonder how the mayor would feel if his protective detail yelled "gun!" and...ran away?

Deal Alert!

Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and "Enemies of the State" - Kindle edition by Stephen P. Halbrook. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ AmazonSmile. is a $1.99 Kindle Daily Deal!

Based on newly discovered secret documents from German archives, diaries, and newspapers of the time, Gun Control in the Third Reich presents the definitive yet hidden history of how the Nazi dictatorship made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate its power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust fail even to mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so—it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups. The book spans the two decades from the birth of the Weimar Republic in 1918 through Kristallnacht in 1938 and then presents a panorama of pertinent events during World War II regarding the effects of the disarming policies. Citizens across the nation are grappling with how the 2nd Amendment should be interpreted—or even if it should be disposed of—and this book provides the perspective of the consequence of disarming a population.

New York Values!

Or: Some animals are more equal than others!

NYPD probe ensnares man offering to expedite gun permits - NY Daily News

A Brooklyn volunteer safety patrol member was charged Monday with bribing cops with $6,000 in cash and other goodies to expedite gun permit requests, and three officers were transferred out of the licensing unit as part of the far-reaching NYPD corruption probe.

Shaya (Alex) Lichtenstein, 44, was so cozy with cops in the License Division that he’d spent nearly every day inside the office in police headquarters since 2014, federal court papers say.

Mrs. Drang and I enjoy the TV show Castle, because Malcolm Reynolds is in it, after all, but I have to laugh every time Castle laments the fact that he can't get a gun permit...

The undercover then said he was nervous about getting involved in the scheme.

In response, Lichtenstein pulled out a calculator and estimated the officer could earn $900,000 if he helped with an estimated 150 permits.
...
He claimed all of his customers were eligible applicants and that he was merely asking the officers to speed up the process, the complaint shows.

But a review of his cases showed one applicant who was approved for gun permit in 2013 had a long criminal history, prosecutors said.

I know that a man named Jim March was bringing suit, or suits, in California because in the majority of the state, the way you got a carry permit was by making a large (four or five large, as it were...) donation to the county sheriff's reelection campaign.

Mr March's website does not seem to have been updated in over a decade, so I have no idea what his status is, although at least some counties are better about going shall-issue...)

This could get real festive: Sources: NYPD Corruption Probe Expands To Mayor’s Fundraising « CBS New York

See, the strongest argument against "may issue" (AKA "Local Option", AKA "Discretionary Licensing") is that whomever makes the decision gets to pick and choose, and even if that doesn't result in palms being greased to "expedite a friends request", it is inherently discriminatory. Which was part of Jim March's argument.

One would think...

...that the owner's manual for an automobile would include information like what replacement windshield wipers it takes, and how to replace them, would one not?

If one drives a hand-me-down* Dodge product, one would be wrong.

Thanks, Obamamobile!

***
*I expressed my distaste for buying an Obamamobile, but Mrs. Drang was convinced she needed a car that size.
Note that several years later she went to a Ford Fiesta.
That reminds me, I think I'll check out the owner's manual on that thing...

That was unexpected

It seems that I have made it almost to the end of Downton Abbey without actually seeing an episode until the last week or two. I wa vaguely aware that it was considered to be somewhat subversive by some because of it's tendencey to show that British Upper Class, and specifically the landed, titled Upper Class, in a good light, but really, never had any interest.

So the last few weeks, what with my work schedule change, I have sat through a couple of episodes,  not really watching them, as I have nearly no chance of really following what was going on, but there is a sub-plot in which there is a bid by a larger hospital to absorb the smaller, local one. Most people support the move on the grounds that it will result in better care locally. Professor McGonagall*, who has transformed herself into the current mother of the Earl of Grantham, and is therefore known as the Doawger Countess, OTOH, is fighting to maintain local control; everyone assumes that she simply does not want to lose power, despite the fact that she has said repeatedly that the move would result in worse care locally, notwithstanding the allegedly better equipment the move would bring.

The other day she expanded on that, using a line of reasoning one might not expect from a member of the gentry. Citing King John Lackland and the Barons, she said (from Washington Examiner)

"For years I've watched governments take control of our lives, and their argument is always the same — fewer costs, greater efficiency — but the result is the same too," Violet said. "Less control by the people, more control by the state, until the individual's own wishes count for nothing. That is what I consider my duty to resist."

She went on to argue, "Your great-grandchildren won't thank you when the state is all powerful because we didn't fight."

Alas, not only your great-grandchildren not know whether you fought or not, it will probably never occur to them that there was anything to fight about.



*Yeah, I know, but I couldn't resist. Some actors, you always see them in a certain role.

I am shocked, SHOCKED!!!

Gov. Inslee halts Bertha work after sinkhole forms near project - Puget Sound Business Journal

After moving less than 200 feet in the past 10 months, the Bertha tunnel boring machine will stop drilling again.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday ordered tunneling work to halt temporarily after a sinkhole formed near the waterfront earlier in the week – the same day digging stopped after a barge carrying dirt tipped over and spilled into Elliott Bay.

Seattle Tunnel Partners will have to find the cause of the sinkhole and prove the contractor can prevent similar incidents in the future before resuming work, Inslee said. Bertha is scheduled to start drilling under the viaduct in March.

“STP will not be allowed to resume tunneling until their analysis and work plans meet the satisfaction of our experts,” Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson said in a statement. “I want to remind everyone that replacing the viaduct is critical to public safety.”

 I predicted at the time this was going to make Boston's Big Dig look like a marvel of efficiency.  (a co-worker from Bahston shrugs and says "Hey, it was only 8 times over budget.")

Looks like I underestimated Seattle's ability to add an element of low farce to municipal incompetence.

UPDATE: Wikipedia is several months behind the news: Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They have to tell them this?

Sheriff tells off-duty deputies to carry firearms, extra ammo | The Seattle Times

“While off-duty I am asking all commissioned personnel to always carry their sidearm, with extra magazines. I know that some of you already do, but many do not. Now is the time! With all that is going in the world, it is more important than ever to have the means to protect your family, the public, and yourself.”

I know that some agencies don't require that officers be armed off-duty -- and a few prohibit it -- but it never occurred to me that the KCSO left it optional.

Related?:

• Gunfire Erupts in Police Operation Near Paris - NBC News
• Map of Terror: Where Will ISIS Strike Next? - NBC News

Surprise, surprise

Seen on Drudge: Obama says gun control to be top issue of final year - Washington Times

President Obama hopes to make gun control the top issue of his final year in office, saying Americans aren’t more violent than other people but they “have more deadly weapons to act out their rage.”

In an interview published Tuesday in GQ magazine, Mr. Obama said easy access to guns is “the only variable” between the U.S. and other developed countries.

“The main thing that I’ve been trying to communicate over the last several of these horrific episodes is that, contrary to popular belief, Americans are not more violent than people in other developed countries,” Mr. Obama said. “But they have more deadly weapons to act out their rage.”

Later in the article, just to show how utterly clueless he is:

Mr. Obama said in his seventh year in office, he feels “looser” and more confident.

“There’s no doubt that the longer I’m in this job, the more confident I am about the decisions I’m making and more knowledgeable about the responses I can expect,” he said. “And as a consequence, you end up being looser. There’s not much I have not seen at this point, and I know what to expect, and I can anticipate more than I did before.”

It's The Law!

Robert Conquest's Three Laws of Politics:

1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
2. Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
3. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. 

I made an effort to read Conquest's  The Great Terror: A Reassessment and Reflections on a Ravaged Century, and they were a bit too... dense, I guess, would be the word. The first needed a much deeper knowledge of Soviet history than I have; I kept struggling to remember which commie was which...

Everyone has heard Parkinson's Law:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

How many have head Parkinson's own corollary, Parkinson's law of triviality:

The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

And, of course, speaking of Parkinsons's law and bureaucracy, we cannot forget Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

UPDATE: This was NOT a post I was expecting a lot of traffic for.  (Well, a lot of hits for this blog...) I just put these here so I could find them when I wanted them, kinda like "Sharing to save" on Facespace.
The question now: Is it a "Wolfe-alanche", or a "Claire-alanche"?

Hearing Protection Act

ASA ANNOUNCES HEARING PROTECTION ACT: A BILL TO REMOVE SUPPRESSORS FROM THE NFA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Suppressor Association (ASA) is pleased to announce the introduction of the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) by Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05). This historic piece of legislation will remove suppressors from the purview of the National Firearms Act (NFA), replacing the antiquated federal transfer process with an instantaneous NICS background check. The HPA also includes a provision to refund the $200 transfer tax to applicants who purchase a suppressor after October 22, 2015.

At this time there is no information posted to GovTrack or OpenCongress, or eve Representative Salmon's official House of Representatives web page about this bill, including a bill number. All the info out there is on blogs and fora, although guns.com does have the text of the bill as introduced. (Goes directly to .pdf file which will open.)

As many have said ( I believe Tamara said it first) suppressors are a safety device and should be sold in blister packs displayed by the cash register.

Frankly, I'd like to see the various gun rights organizations go after gutting the entire National Firearms Act of 1934; most of the limitations under it are arbitrary and serve no demonstrable purpose. As a compromise, since the hoplophobes are so fond of the word, Uncle Sam can keep charging a fee on items like suppressors and short barreled rifles and shotguns, say $50.00, which is to be collected at the point of sale. The idea that these things are so inherently evil that charging a larger tax and making law abiding citizens jump through various regulatory hoops is going to reduce their use in crime is absurd, and reducing the bureaucratic burden would probably result in such an increase in revenue as to be a net gain, not to mention all the bureaucrats who could be reassigned to more productive work.