May 2012 – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

A Toast to Dr. Welch

With my first red wine now bottled, I can turn my attention to my next wine making endeavor. I made a few mistakes with my red which I will do my best not to repeat. My main complaint about the first red is that it was lifeless and watery. I racked into my brewing carboy for secondary, and topped off with water to fill the remaining headspace. Then I recalled that the standard winemaking carboy is six gallons, where as my brewing carboy is six and a half. I watered the wine down too much. That also affects how well the wine clarifies. It’s not that the wine is bad, it’s just that it’s not good. Hopefully with a little bottle conditioning, it’ll improve a bit.

What I’m going to try next is a white wine, made from reconstituted Welch’s 100% Niagara Grape Frozen Concentrate. After reading the history of Thomas Bramwell Welch, I decided I had to try this. Welch was the first person to get the idea of applying Dr. Pasteur’s microbe killing process to grape juice. There were many things to admire about Dr. Welch, being an abolitionist and active on the Underground Railroad. But he was also a world class busybody prohibitionist, and it is that particular history that has made me decide to turn some of Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine into a real McCoy. It would probably kill the old man to know the company that he founded, and bears his name, seems to be on relatively friendly terms with the home winemaking community, and willing to answer questions from home winemakers using the Welch’s product to make wine. But I suppose this day in age shouting, “Be gone sinner, and drinker of the demon spirits!” into the phone of people wanting to know the acid additions to their grape juice, or sulfite concentrations, wouldn’t go over too well among the juice buying public, never mind hobby winemakers.

What the body politic did to prohibitionists is a wonderful lesson for our cause. To the extent there even are prohibitionists these days, they are viewed as out of the mainstream and quacky. We almost have the opponents of gun rights there, provided we keep pushing. I’ll drink a toast to Dr. Welch, and his company, and hope in our current struggle, our opponents suffer the same political fate.

A Couple of #Winning Observations

Ever notice that the few publicly disclosed Hollywood NRA members have a disproportionate involvement in decently made historical and/or patriotic films? Funny how that seems to be true. We settled on NRA board member Tom Selleck’s Ike – Countdown to D-Day a couple of days ago. It also has NRA member Gerald McRaney.

This wasn’t the only recent NRA member entertainment we have enjoyed. We last caught McRaney in Jericho.

As we were surfing through movies to watch on Netflix last night, we stopped on Netflix’s “Most Popular” tab. The first show listed was NRA board member R. Lee Ermey’s Lock N’ Load. That’s called winning right there.

Controlling Bureaucrats Through the Purse Strings

The appropriations bill for the Department of Commerce and Department of Justice contain eleven provisions that should be helpful to gun owners. I’m particularly happy to see four provisions that will be finally made permanent. This appropriations game is one that NRA plays quite skillfully, but permanent provisions are always better than having to constantly fight for appropriations riders every year.

More Evidence Our Opponents are Delusional

CSGV has been hawking this story for the past week, and I guess they found an outlet lacking in enough credibility enough to bite. I am not normally one to defend NAGV, but if anyone thinks this graphic is a threat to the President, they are completely delusional. Besides, NAGR is not alone, as Miguel has found numerous instances of Google making violent threats against the President and other high-profile public figures.

If this is the juvenile accusations our opponents have stooped to, I feel pretty good about things. I saw some of the folks who follow CSGV mention that this notion of an Obama gun ban is just lunacy, but for once this is based on an actual issue, namely the re-importation of M1 Garand rifles. While the Administration has reluctantly allowed the importation of 86,000 M1 Garands from South Korea, it is still blocking the importation of some 600,000 M1 Carbines, becauseÂ â€œthey come with a magazine that can carry multiple rounds.”

Ordinarily, both the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine are considered Curious & Relics under federal law, and are unrestricted from importation, regardless of the “sporting purposes” requirement. But because the Department of Defense still exercises controls over re-importation of firearms sold or given as surplus to foreign governments, the Administration has chosen to ban these rifles from re-importation. So it is correct to suggest that this is a gun ban imposed by the Administration.

Carrying Large Amounts of Cash is Legal

But that doesn’t mean the cops won’t take it anyway, and make you prove it’s legit before they’ll give it back.Â Civil Asset Forfeiture is one of the biggest infringements to civil liberties that government engages in under the guise of the War on Drugs. It’s another issue I’m surprised doesn’t get more attention from politicians who want to appear to be good civil libertarians, though I know these days that kind of thing is out of fashion.

And it’s not like I believe the government can never seize money, but the presumption of innocence should mean the government can’t seize ill gotten gains until one’s guilt has been proven, and the property implicated, beyond a reasonable doubt. Under Civil Asset Forfeiture, since the property is being charged, there’s no presumption of innocence.

This is My Shocked Face

A TV news outlet in California is shocked to find out that despite California’s stringent gun laws, there’s still a lot of illegal guns, and that at gun shows, people sell magazines in a manner that isn’t illegal. One guy at a gun show tried to sell his firearm privately, only to be warned by dealers that it was a felony. Seems like the guy wasn’t a criminal, but just that he didn’t know.

One reason I oppose many of the laws proposed by our opponents is because it has great potential to ensnare the unaware, but otherwise non-criminal. Even thought a civil penalty or low-level misdemeanor is enough to discourage the law abiding, our opponents insist on felony penalties for activities that are not commonly understood as being unlawful. Being a gun owner should not require a law degree in order to avoid getting in trouble, but in most cases, when it comes to gun, if you get into the hobby enough you will need to know a lot of gun laws in order not to get in trouble. Our opponents are fine with this, and deride our concern about honest people getting thrown in jail as paranoid ramblings, and then wonder why we oppose them ferociously, even over things that they believe are eminently reasonable.

Fighting Culture Wars

Tam amusingly notes that the Republican dog can always be counted on to chase the culture war stick. The fact is that there’s no better tactic for the Democrats to use this election than to get everyone all pissed off about culture war issues. The question is whether Mitt Romney will be stupid enough to chase the stick. Having been relatively socially liberal as a Governor of Massachusetts tells me he doesn’t have true SoCo instincts, but Romeny has never met an important constituency he didn’t want to pander to. Look for more of this as the election gets closer. Obama knows he can’t run on his record on fiscal issues, so culture wars it will be.

HSUS Children’s Book Fail

According to Heather in Alaska, HSUS decided to write a children’s book about a cute, cuddly Grizzly Bear, and wanting to base it on a real bear, contacted Glacier National Park for some assistance. Apparently the real Grizzly the HSUS children’s story was based on went on to hunt down and eat a park employee.

North Carolina Won’t Appeal

The challenge to North Carolina’s emergency powers provision that could essentially ban guns will not be appealed, meaning the ruling tossing it will stand. That seems to be the prudent move from North Carolina officials, given that appeal would just be a waste of taxpayer money.

House Passes DOJ Pay Cut

I like the idea, but I’m personally not a fan of collective punishment. I’d make sure that 1 million dollar cut came straight out of the DOJ top brass salaries, the ones who are responsible for not complying with the subpoena.

UPDATE: Looks like it does, indeed, only come out of those pockets. Bravo.