Sebastian – Page 1476 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Why Would You Talk?

Since this story is moving around, I thought I’d throw in my two cents. I just want to make it clear I’m not in any way advocating people not be careful with airline security, or not take it seriously. Anyone who goes through security with contraband and doesn’t get caught is extremely lucky, and you don’t want to depend on luck to stay out of trouble. It’s important to keep your wits about you as to your carry situation at all times, especially when crossing security checkpoints.

But let’s say, given that you’ve gotten past airport security with a gun you’d mistakenly forgotten you were carrying, why would you then turn yourself in? If it was me, and I somehow made it through TSA security with a pistol, I’d count my lucky stars, finish the flight, and get the hell out of dodge as fast as I could as soon as I landed.

It would be prudent at that point to contact an attorney to ask for advise on the situation, and also what to do now that you have to get the pistol back to where you came from, when its original journey was quite illegal.

I have sympathy for this woman, who made an honest mistake, and tried to do the right thing. I think the prosecutors would be wise to do the right thing on their part and not charge her. Otherwise, the next person who finds themselves in this situation would be wise to just keep their mouth shut. I mean, you wouldn’t be worried you were going to hijack the plane right? You can bet the terrorists won’t turn themselves in.

Britain’s Next Move

Wretchard has a good post up describing what he thinks the British need to do next. Basically, he believes Tony Blair needs to take things off the diplomatic track, and put the ball in the Ayatollahs’ court:

Â …
Now that the diplomatic basketball has rimmed out, what Britain may consider doing now is what I suggested in the first place. Take the whole thing off the diplomatic track without initiating any overt hostilities.

Whitehall should withdraw the entire British diplomatic mission from Teheran and deal with the Ayatollahs through their representatives to the United Nations; they can expel every Iranian diplomat and official from the UK. And if possible, they should convince their European partners — for whatever they are worth — to do the same. Make the Ayatollahs beg for a diplomatic solution. Make them ask, “what’s next?” Make them beg the British to talk to them. At the minimum this will create uncertainty in Teheran. It forecloses nothing, even a return to diplomacy. And in that atmosphere of uncertainty, the naval force in the Gulf will becoming truly menacing. They should have done this from the first day, in my layman’s opinion. But hey, every day is the next day of the rest of our lives.

From the comments:

…
The Ayatollahs are counting on the British to stay inside the box, where they can be harried and finally destroyed at leisure, politically speaking. The first thing to do in this ambush is to break out of the kill zone. That kill zone destroyed Jimmy Carter. And the number one priority of Tony Blair should be to escape from it.

Teheran has by now decided to use the British sailors for a long term game. The task before the UK is to shift the fight onto ground where it can develop more power than its foe. It cannot do this within the strict and stylized confines of diplomacy….

Read the whole thing, and read some of the comments. It’s a mystery to me why the British went to the EU and UN when both those institutions have demonstrated, over and over, that they are feckless in the face of any international crisis. I worry that these institutions have become a religion for the European political establishment.

What We Really Did

Bitter and I actually attended a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra this weekend, rather than getting hitched in Las Vegas. The performance was of Schumann’s Piano Concerto, a piece I’m pretty familiar with, and Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4, which I’ve never heard in my life. Before that we went out for some German at Ludwig’s Garden, one of my favored center-city venues. Ludwigs regularly serves game, and Bitter got some quite tasty venison.

A fact about me: I used to be an amateur classical pianist. I say used to, because it’s not like riding a bike. I haven’t played for 12 years. From age four to twenty one, I took lessons. Some things I played were Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A-major, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 14 in C# Major “Moonlight” (did all three movements), Several Chopin pieces, including Polonaise No. 1 Op. 40 in A-major “Military”. I can only play bits now, and not very well. Memory and fingerings fade. At twenty one, for some reason, I just lost interest in it.

I also decided I needed to spend some time to top off my beer reserves before we head to St. Louis, where in addition to attending the NRA convention, we have a VIP tour of the Anheiser-Busch brewery. I adjusted my British India Pale Ale recipe to an American IPA, and went through the whole process with Bitter. This IPA will even be called the “Bitter Bitch IPA”, or maybe just “Bitchy IPA”. I ran through the whole process with Bitter, ending with pitching the yeast a few minutes before she had to go home. With an original gravity of 1.067, this is sure to be a decent IPA. That will translate into about 6.7% ABV. Definitely something that will kick your ass if you drink too much of it. But I like my beer strong.

Hope you all had a good weekend too, and thanks for the many congratulations on our non-wedding. If we ever do have a real one, we’ll have to invite some of you to make up for it ;)

Best Fark Headline

I loved this one:

Good news: Philadelphia is in line to meet another one of its milestones. Bad news: A milestone that means Philly is on par to hit 400 murders in one year. Guns don’t kill people, Eagles fans kill people.

Hah!

Yep, It Was a Joke

There are several things that would need to happen before Bitter and I would actually get hitched.Â Â Living in the same city is probably one of them.Â Â She should be arriving back home in Virginia soon, quite unmarried.

I do love shrimp though!

Might Need Psychological Counseling

At least I might, according to the State of California:

Thomas Lee McKiernan, who was arrested earlier this month when his house caught fire and exposed his arsenal to authorities, remains in jail awaiting a sentence that could range from probation and psychological counseling to five years in prison.

The charge?Â Possession of an illegal assault weapon, which would be legal in just about every other state.Â So it looks like all the service rifle competitors who go to Camp Perry each year are in need of some serious psychological counseling.

Hat Tip: Dave Hardy

A Fun Weekend

Bitter and I had a great weekend. I sure do love shrimp. Oh yeah, and Bitter too.

John Street’s Sense of Irony

John Street is holding a conference with other area mayors, talking about ways they can crap all over lawful gun owners in this commonwealth (and other states). I particularly like the headline here “Mayor Street Hosts Area Mayors for Anti-Gun-Violence Summit”. So does that mean the mayor would be happy if people were getting their skulls bashed in with baseball bats? The problem in Philadelphia is violence in general, not just the guns. But here’s where the irony comes in:

Mayor Street and about a dozen regional mayors were holding a daylong summit on Friday at the National Constitution Center on how to curb gun violence.

Emphasis mine. The National Constitution Center? Are you friggin kidding me? I think we have to remind the mayor of something. First federal, Amendment II:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Now the Pennsylvania Constitution, Art. 1, Â§ 21:

The right of the citizens to bear arms in defence of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.

Emphases mine, just in case John Street thinks that part isn’t clear. But does Mayor Street get the irony of his venue?

Street wants the mayors to work for stricter gun laws — especially in Pennsylvania, whose gun laws Street called “lax.”

Nope.

Act 71

Let me just clarify my position on Act 71. The way it stands now, I don’t think it’s acceptable, but I don’t want to go back to just making gambling flat out illegal, nor do I like the folks who are fighting it. The folks coming out against Act 71 are doing it because they think gambling is bad and immoral, at the root. I’m doing it, because I don’t appreciate Ed Rendell using legalized gambling to help line the pockets of his political cronies, and I’d like to see it being done differently so that’s there’s less government and less politics involved in the process.

I’ve never bought Ed Rendell’s justification for passing Act 71; that it’ll bring in enough revenue to offset other taxes. I have no problem with the state taxing gambling, or licensing establishments for gambling, provided the licensing requirements are objective and free from political influence of powerful people. But it was was about revenue for me. I would have been happy with a “because we’re not your fucking parents” justification for liberalizing the commonwealth’s gambling laws.

From Indiana…

Via Ahab, comes a story of a man who gets arrested after confronting trespassers on his property while armed. I think charges are a bit harsh here, since the owner claims he wasn’t brandishing, but it’s a valuable lesson: Your gun doesn’t come out of your holster unless you intend, and are justified legally, to use deadly force against someone. Otherwise, keep it in your holster. The best way to deal with trespassers is to call the police.