2011 – Page 18 – Shall Not Be Questioned

What Drugs Are They Taking at the Brady Campaign?

I’m not even really sure what to make of this, but the outright bizarreness emanating from the Brady Center these days continues:

Umm, in 1963, Jack Kennedy was President, and given the choice, I’m pretty sure he’d rather have had the White House randomly sprayed by gunfire from a whack job with an SKS while he wasn’t home, than having his brains blown out in Dallas by a Castro-sympathizing sniper from a sixth floor window using a scoped Italian bolt action rifle.

And you have even more ridiculous nonsense from our opponents about the gun shooting two footballs fields! You’d think no one ever killed anyone before Simonov and Kalashnikov came along. Just be happy Hollywood movies have taught most random nuts to spray and pray. There was a time when they aimed. I worry more about the nut that aims, regardless of what type of firearm he has.

Congresswoman Maloney: F&F GOP Manufactured Scandal

Congresswoman Maloney, a top supporter of gun control, calls the Fast and Furious “scandal” a “Republican red herring.”

Yes, this operation was ill-conceived. Americans who are outraged at Terryâ€™s death rightly want to know whether it has been scrapped and whether Attorney General Eric Holder, who oversees ATF, is aggressively investigating Fast and Furious. I can report that the answer to both of those questions is a resounding yes.

But for Republican congressional leaders, one botched operation is not enough to serve their political goals. They need a scandal â€” and are desperate to create one.

When you have a dead Border Agent, killed with a gun that was deliberately allowed into criminals hands by the DOJ/ATF, I don’t think there’s anything manufactured about that controversy. I can’t tell you how much I find the “Bush did it too” excuse to be pathetic. It’s pretty clear at this point high level DOJ and Administration officials knew about the plan, knew what it was doing, and did nothing to stop it. This has done quite a lot to convince me that for people like Maloney the concern about gun violence is really baloney. All they really give a crap about is restricting guns as much as they can.

Late Start Today Thanks to the Flesh Eating Bacteria

Sorry for the late start to posting today. I had to go to the doctor to take care of the flesh eating bacteria. Well, OK, that’s a bit exaggerated, but I’m prone to sebaceous cysts, and every once in a while one gets infected. When that happens, it’s painful and nasty. But it’s provided a bit of a lesson on health care costs. See, like most people, I had no idea what it costs to see my doctor, because insurance has always paid for it.

Cost 45 bucks to see the doctor, and 4 dollars for the sulfa antibiotic he prescribed. It cost more to get my car inspected last month. Now granted, as some point that cyst is going to need to be removed, and that’s sure to cost more like 10x this amount. But the cost of kicking the can down the road a bit, until I get established with the next job and get on their health plan was a lot less than I expected it to be. Granted, because I was paying cash, the doctor gave me a break on his usual rate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up making more doing a cash transaction than the office usually makes dealing with insurance companies.

Either way, hopefully the sulfa drug will take care of it. I was surprised to get prescribed that, given that this class of antibiotics has been around since World War II. But it turns out sulfa drugs are actually effective against most strains of resistant staph, which is apparently becoming uncomfortably common in community acquired infections. You want to really be frightened, the pharma industry isn’t really doing much in the way of looking for new antimicrobials. Because of the dangers of overuse, doctors are prescribing them less often, and the market has been getting smaller. In addition, if you do put a new class of antimicrobial on the market, you’re probably guaranteed to be a last line of defense, when all other antibiotics fail. This limits the market size and destroys the incentive to invest in the R&D, and antimicrobials are a tougher class of drugs than most. That’s a shame, because sulfa drugs have a high incidence of allergic reaction. While I’m pretty sure I had this class of sulfa drugs as a kid, I’m not 100% sure, so I’m hoping I tolerate it well. As much as medical science has advanced, it’s a real shame to have to rely on class of antimicrobials dating from World War II to deal with the modern drug-resistant bugs floating around out there.

Mexican Carrying a Glock

Bad idea.You’d think Plaxico Burris would have taught people it was a bad idea, but fools keep doing it. Fortunately for us, this guy has removed himself from the gene pool. Guns need to be carried in holsters. This goes to show that mandatory training requirements can’t cure stupid.

Anyone Had an Issue with Dick’s Sporting Goods?

From PAFOA, it would seem that they are enforcing New Jersey law over here in Pennsylvania. Some of our club members had an issue with Dicks in the same vein a while back, and they clarified this was not their policy. But it seems they are doing it again. Dicks is under no obligation to enforce New Jersey law outside of New Jersey. They are under obligation to obey federal law, but federal law only demands the person be 18 for “rifle or shotgun ammunition” and 21 for “handgun ammunition.” That might justify a license check, at most.

So the question them becomes why Dick’s is enforcing New Jersey law in Pennsylvania? The only thing I can figure is their corporate General Counsel is paranoid. But is his paranoia justified? This is New Jersey we’re talking about.Â Since Dick’s holds a license from the State of New Jersey for dealing in firearms and ammunition, I suspect the concern is that New Jersey authorities could dick with their license (no pun intended) if the powers that be become upset with their policies. It’s worth noting that dealer licenses in New Jersey are comparatively may-issue compared to other jurisdictions. A license can be revoked or denied if the State Police feel the dealer would “pose a danger to the public health, safety or welfare.”

But I’m not aware of any other big box retailers, like Wal-Mart being concerned enough to card New Jersey residents. But Wal-Mart wields a bigger stick than a smaller retailer like Dick’s. Has anyone else noticed this problem with retailers? I make a policy to buy ammo from sources that are known to support gun rights. Dick’s is not among them.

Making Fun of the AR

Miguel has a graphic reminder that it’s not a perfect platform. However, I’d note the AK-47 has the ergonomics you’d expect from a rifle fielded by a brutal communist regime. One reason I prefer the AR platform is the ergonomics is just a lot better. Think about changing a magazine on an AR and an AK, and you’ll see what I mean. I can shoot my AR all day and enjoy it. I’ve just never felt the same way about the AK platform, and I have both an AK-47 patterned rifle and an AK-74 patterned rifle.

New York Times Misses the Mark

A mental health awareness group has taken the New York Times to task over their article on Felons and Guns:

It is easy to attribute tragedies to inadequate gun control, but doing so overlooks the pronounced link between nontreatment of mental illness and violent acts.

Read the whole thing. I had never heard of the Treatment Advocacy Center before, but they look legit, and don’t appear to be part of the conservative DC establishment. Quite the opposite. So I’m going to suggest the gun control groups aren’t going to be able to legitimately complain these folks are just a bunch of right-wing insurrectionists.

I’d Be Surprised if this is True

The Hill is claiming the NRA endorsement for Montana’s Senate seat is up in the air. It will be Tester against Denny Rehberg. Tester should generally benefit from NRA’s incumbent friendly endorsement policy, even though Rehberg has a very pro-gun record in the House. The only thing I could see complicating things for Tester is that he voted to confirm Sonya Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Other than that, I would be surprised if Tester doesn’t get the endorsement, unless NRA is looking to send a strong message to Senators that votes for Court nominees that don’t support the Second Amendment won’t be tolerated. I would agree with that course of action, because I don’t think there’s anything more important that Senators can vote on right now than Court appointments.

Winning

More women taking up shooting for fun and self-defense. Clearly they must be compensating for something.

The GOP Field

Tam wonders whether the GOP is trying to deliberately throw the election. By all historical accounts, given how poor the economy is, and how high unemployment is running, there should be no way that Barry wins a second term, yet I’m quite worried that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I’m normally willing to get behind someone in the primary by this point — in 2008, before he dropped out, it was Fred Thompson. Policy and temperament wise, Rick Perry actually seems to be the best of the lot, but his performance so far has just been disappointing.

I’d be willing to cast the “not-Obama” vote in the general election, and get behind the eventual candidate, even if it’s, and it pains me to say this, Mitt Romney. I don’t expect much from the next President, since I think the economy will still pretty much suck, and people still won’t have jobs. The next guy is likely to be a one termer too if Obama gets the boot, and I’d almost hate to waste someone good on a doomed presidency. So if Romney has to be the sacrificial lamb, so be it. We get to roll the dice again in four years with the Democrats, and maybe there’s a chance they’ll field someone who isn’t a total disaster. There are two things that are true, however, if Obama is re-elected:

Scalia and Kennedy will be 80 by the end of Obama’s second term. Thomas will be 68. The chances Obama will get to replace one of these justices is extremely high, and if he does, it’ll be a bloody miracle of we can save the Second Amendment. Best case scenario is that you’ll, at the least, be able to keep a gun in the home, but with all DC and Chicago’s ridiculous regulations being upheld.
Secondly, while Romney is responsible for socialized medicine in Massachusetts, as a Republican President he’ll be facing an awful lot of party pressure to sign an Obamacare repeal if it hits his desk. I don’t see any scenario where Romney could veto and not have a revolt within his own party on his hands. Obama will almost definitely veto a repeal, and the Republicans aren’t likely to have enough votes in the Senate to override.

So that’s kind of how I’m looking at it.Â To me the two things we want out of the next President are to put someone on the Supreme Court who will be a vote in favor of the Second Amendment, and to sign a repeal of Obamacare. The majority of Obamacare does not go into effect until 2014, but once it does, you’ll never get rid of it. I think the candidates we have now in the GOP field are going to be reasonable vessels for trying to achieve both those goals. It’s not perfect, but I can deal with a disaster of a GOP Presidency as long as those two goals have a reasonable chance of being achieved. Under Obama, there’s almost no chance of that.