The Republican candidate is falling all over himself to support as much anti-gun legislation as possible. I feel for the lawful gun owners in the district.
Author: Bitter
Unintended Consequences in Paradise
The other day, I stumbled across a post at Boots & Sabers that made me laugh about the nature of unintended consequences. It would seem that San Diego voters decided to ban drinking on beaches in 2008. Not surprisingly, the voters who disagreed with the van and visitors simply took to floating their various beach gear out off shore a bit and enjoying a cold one in the water. That was not good enough for local bureaucrats who have now decided to take the ban even further – 3 miles off the shore to be precise. Owen adds:
I see a market for party barges that head a few miles off shore. Of course, they could just allow drinking on the beaches where people who pass out will wake up with a bad sunburn instead of drowning.
Who needs common sense, right?
I was reminded of it last night while reading through the guidebook I bought for our trip, Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed. The specific paragraph:
Sometimes even good intentions can lead to disaster. At one adventure, a trailhead led hikers to the base of a wonderful waterfall. There was only one trail, to the left of the parking lot, that a person could take. Neither we, other guides nor websites ever said, “stay on the trail to the left” because at the time there was only one trail to take. The state (in their zeal to protect themselves from liability at an unmaintained trail) came along and put up a DANGER KEEP OUT sign at the trailhead. Travelers encountering the sign assumed they were on the wrong trail and started to beat a path to the right instead. But that direction started sloping downward and ended abruptly at a 150-foot-high cliff. Hikers retreated and in a short time a previously non-existent trail to the right became as prominent as the correct (and heretofore only) path to the left. Not long after the state’s well-intentioned sign went up, an unwitting pair of hikers took the new, incorrect trail to the right and fell to their deaths. They probably died because they had been dissuaded from taking the correct trail by a state sign theoretically erected to keep people safe.
Wal-Mart Receipt Checkers Come ThisClose to Crossing the Line
If you read Consumerist, you know that Wal-Mart’s receipt checkers are known for getting a little out-of-control to the point of harassing shoppers. Fortunately, that had never been the case for me – at least until today.
Now, before anyone accuses me of getting my Wal-Mart hate on too early, I’m a big fan of the retail giant. I love their low prices and their decent selection. I have family members who have worked for them for decades, so I’m in no way opposed to their business model. At least until it crosses the line of chasing shoppers inappropriately.
I noticed the employee at the door as soon as I walked in. He wasn’t facing me, but he stood out because he’s not the type you normally see handling receipt duties at Wal-Mart. Normally it’s nice older folks who will accept my “no thanks” response when I turn down their request to check my receipt. This guy was older – probably early 50s – but he was reasonably built and even had a tattoo showing on his arm. He was not the usual face of Wal-Mart by any stretch.
When I was leaving, I know I had done nothing suspicious, and he knew it, too. I know he knew since I noticed him watching me as I put my receipt in my wallet before fully departing the register nearest him and the door. I had no purse, just my oversized wallet and a cart with a few cases of soda in it. If I had not been alert, I would have been freaked out when he popped up right beside me demanding my receipt.
In response to his demands, I did my polite smile with the “no, thanks” response. This guy apparently likes to get his way because he kept walking behind me. So, I stopped and turned saying, “Look, I am a member of Sam’s Club where I agree to wait in line to have my receipt checked. I’m not doing that here.” He started in with a rant along the lines of “I don’t care where you’re a member, I want to see your receipt.” But I didn’t let him finish because I told him that unless he planned to get the police involved and could provide hard evidence of suspicious behavior, I was leaving without showing him my receipt that I already put away. That made him back off of the argument, but not the attempt to intimidate. He tried following me, but he decided not to go past the doors.
I called his boss from the parking lot. I stayed out there an extra 10 minutes while they went to find her. She agreed that his behavior of following a 20-something woman in an attempt to intimidate was beyond over the line, especially for a couple of cases of soda. To her credit, she pledged to go have a chat with him immediately. But damn if it doesn’t make me want to avoid Wal-Mart for a while. I haven’t been chased around Target by their staff barking orders at me, and I find I prefer to shop that way.
But upon telling Sebastian the story, he pointed that a better carry form of pepper spray would probably be good for situations like that. If he had tried to grab me or come after me in the parking lot, it would have been a reasonable response. Without the police, they cannot detain you. Even with the police, they are going to have to show some kind of evidence that they believe you committed a crime. Their policy of checking receipts is completely unenforceable. Hopefully the next staffer at the door will accept the polite “no thanks” instead of trying intimidate & harass shoppers, leaving them to wonder if they need to pull out pepper spray.
We’re Not Nearly as Organized
Sadly, I don’t think the right will ever be able to truly beat the left at the political organization game. We’re people who tend to like being left alone. I someone tries to tell us what to do, there are a good number of us who will do the opposite just to spite them. The rest would simply ignore them. And because the left is much better at getting on board with group efforts, the members of Journolist honestly believed they could organize to control the media narrative in an effort to help Barack Obama during the presidential campaign.
Read the link if you want to be horrified at the number of outlets getting in on the effort to bury stories that could hurt Obama and an effort to publicly call any critic of Obama’s a racist.
But, here’s another notable comment from the list by Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent:
It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.
I thought political violence was only a tool of the right. (Obviously I mean this rhetorically.)
Patriotism on Display
According to TheNewspaper.com, some very patriotic citizens in Washington decided to decorate their town. Or rather, their local red light cameras.
Seeing the red, white, and blue flying is usually enough to make me smile. Seeing red, white, and blue used this creatively to get in the way of government revenue sources that do nothing for “public safety,” well, that just warms my heart.
Attacking Reciprocity – Again
The anti-gunners here don’t want to lose a battle, so they just keep delaying votes on bills. By not formally taking a vote, the bill stays alive. If it has a formal vote and they lose – even by the slimmest of margins – it’s done. I guess they are taking their lessons from New Jersey.
That said, fall is a dangerous time to have this come up. I would assume if the Pennsylvania legislature operates anything like our neighbors to the east, there’s a possibility for lame duck sessions. (This is my first full session living here, so don’t get angry if I’m wrong.) That’s always when lawmakers who have been booted out like to send one last “screw you” vote to their constituents. It’s one reason why we need to make sure that the pro-gun forces at all levels – federal and state – stay in office to help keep gun control off the table during those times.
Understatement of the Year
First, the back story:
During the latest episode of the battle over a sex tape showing ex-presidential candidate John Edwards being less than presidential, Judge Carl Fox stopped with a quizzical look.
Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer with whom Edwards had an extramarital affair and a child, claims the tape is hers and wants it back from Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide who wrote a tell-all book about the politician’s quest for the White House.
At a hearing in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday, lawyers for Young argued that Hunter had no claim to it. They contended the video belonged to the Edwards campaign or his political action committee.
“What possible purpose would a campaign want – or desire for – a sex tape of a candidate involved in a sex act?” Fox asked rhetorically.
First of all, I love that there will forever be court records with that question in there. That should go down in the history of great political quotes. But, now for the understatement of the year:
“The campaign did not want some tapes that would upset Elizabeth Edwards,” said Wade Barber, the lawyer from Pittsboro on Hunter’s legal team.
Just because the campaign paid for them and didn’t want to use them in the Edwards for President commercials at the time doesn’t mean they don’t belong to the campaign. I mean, come on, you never know when having your lover film you in a sex act while cheating on your dying wife will be just the thing to rekindle a political career.
WWII as Fought on Facebook
While checking in on Facebook this morning, Farrah posted this hysterical piece on how WWII would have been fought via Facebook.
Click to see the whole thing.
Kopel’s Testimony on Kagan
I meant to post this earlier, but I’ve been distracted by a few things – including talking to a potential new addition to the EVC program in Pennsylvania. Woo hoo. But, I’ve also been trying to keep up with the Kagan hearings. What’s interesting is that as I was reading Dave Kopel’s testimony on Kagan, I heard his concerns brought up by Sen. Jeff Sessions.
The unfortunate lesson of the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor is that Senators who care about the Second Amendment cannot rely on platitudes about “settled law” or even direct promises to abide by Heller. Before this Committee, Ms. Sotomayor declared, “I understand the individual right fully that the Supreme Court recognized in Heller.” And, “I understand how important the right to bear arms is to many, many Americans.
To the Senate Judiciary Committee, Justice Sotomayor repeatedly averred that Heller is “settled law.” The Associated Press reported that Sen. Mark Udall “said Sotomayor told him during a private meeting that she considers the 2008 ruling that struck down a Washington, D.C., handgun ban as settled law that would guide her decisions in future cases.”
Yet on June 28, 2010, Justice Sotomayor joined Justice Breyer‘s dissenting opinion in McDonald v. Chicago, and announced that Heller was wrongly decided and should be over-ruled. Apparently her true belief was not what she told this Committee, but instead: “In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self defense.”
So by “settled law,” nominee Sotomayor seems to have meant “not settled; should be overturned immediately.”
Accordingly, statements from Ms. Kagan about Heller being “settled law” provide not an iota of assurance that as a Justice she would support Heller, rather than attempt to eliminate it.
Reciprocity Under Attack Again
For those of you in Pennsylvania, today the anti-gunners are coming after concealed carry reciprocity once again. They have put off the vote over and over again since they can’t quite scrape together enough. If this really comes up, it likely means they have the votes or they are close enough that they think they can swing it.
You know what to do. Contact information is here.