Bitter – Page 139 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Drinks are on the House

The House Speaker, that is.

It reads like a dream order for a wild frat party: Makerâ€™s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Baileyâ€™s Irish CrÃ¨me, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey â€¦ and Corona beer.

But that single receipt makes up just part of the more than $101,000 taxpayers paid for â€œin-flight servicesâ€ â€“ including food and liquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosiâ€™s trips on Air Force jets over the last two years. Thatâ€™s almost $1,000 per week.

I could use a spare bottle of Grey Goose if she’s got a bottle (or even half!) laying around. I just got our sampler of vanilla beans from around the world in, and now the 2 cups of extract I planned to make aren’t going to be nearly enough.

There’s a Chilly Breeze

It seems that Hell just dropped a few degrees. I don’t know how else to describe the prospect of Massachusetts getting a single license issuing authority that removes the discretion of local police. I admit that I don’t pay close attention to things in the Bay State anymore, but wow. Just wow.

I realize that most of you read that and wonder what kind of gun rights hell that describes, and why I would consider it a good thing. Consider that when someone I know described the gun laws of Massachusetts to a Pennsylvania gun owner, the guy didn’t even believe that it was in America. He knew the state was part of this country, but he assumed the laws described were from a country that has a near ban on ownership. Baby steps don’t even begin to describe how reform happens in Massachusetts.

Going Overboard on a Single Issue

In a world of politics where it’s rare to see a candidate take a strong stand on any position and actually mean it, I suppose that I should find Joe Hoeffel’s dedication to abortion admirable – at least as a matter of not being afraid to be clear on his positions. But for a guy who wants to win a state that’s more of a purple shade of blue rather than bright blue, you’d think he would have figured out that his enthusiasm for a controversial issue isn’t exactly going to win him many votes.

Most pro-choicers I know are not ardent pro-choice advocates. While they are unlikely to vote for a candidate who wants to ban all abortions, they are also not likely to carry water for those who take a Kang-like dedication to “abortions for all.”

So I really have to wonder exactly what Hoeffel’s strategy on this issue is for his race for governor. He can’t possibly think there’s a constituency for it. The abortion issue and related links made up 28 of his last 60 tweets. I can’t fathom anyone who actually thinks that abortion is such an important issue today that it justifies nearly 50% of a campaign’s social media outreach. There are no big controversial abortion bills on the floor of either the state legislature or Congress. Even if he survives the Democratic primary, there’s really nothing the next governor will be able to do for either side of the issue. Hoeffel has just gone nuts on this non-issue, and I can’t fathom whose votes he believes it will win. At this rate, I fully expect him to show up at the next campaign stop with a Planned Parenthood abortion pride t-shirt on.

Does NRA have any Friends left in Philly?

We typically attend a couple of Friends of the NRA dinners a year, but last year we missed them all. The family in Bucks County that always organizes it (and complains about how much work it is while turning away volunteer help), seems to have dropped the event last year. The New Jersey dinner we have attended in the past was held the same night as another event we planned to attend, so that was just a planning issue.

This year, I’d like to get back into the habit of attending them. We’re by no means high bidders in auctions, but we’ll usually spend some dough on games and a silent auction item. Lucky for us, we learned in a conversation with the Field Rep in 2008 that there’s usually a Philadelphia dinner in the spring.

Unfortunately, when I went to check out the list of dinners scheduled for the next few months, it would seem that the Philadelphia dinner is not mentioned. I presume that if there is going to be a spring event, it would already be well into the planning stages. Hopefully they just bumped it back to later in the year. I’d hate to think that the shooting sports, youth programs, women’s outreach, and range support programs have no friends left in Philadelphia. (We won’t know whether there are friends left in Bucks County until later this year since that dinner was regularly held in the fall.)

That Sums It Up

Obama: I Hate The Perpetual Campaign. Please Donate Now.

I’m always a fan of a good headline.

Missing Important Facts, Even When They Take Our Side

When an Oregon paper editorializes that Obama’s pro-gun moves have been sensible, it really has to chap hides over at the Brady Campaign. That’s partially because the paper otherwise supports the anti-gun agenda and is willing to give a pass on some issues, but also because even when they take our side, the facts are wrong. It’s rather funny, actually.

The anti-Second Amendment group last week criticized Obama for â€œcontinuing concessions to the â€˜guns anywhereâ€™ mentality of the gun lobby.â€
…
The restriction in national parks was unenforceable, and lifting it has caused no harm as far as has been reported.

Likewise, the Amtrak ban on transporting guns in checked baggage was nonsensical on its face, considering that the only people it affected were legitimate hunters and competitive shooters traveling to marksmanship matches. It forced these people to transport their equipment on the highways instead of taking the train. Criminals, on the other hand, if any were taking Amtrak trains, could carry their handguns concealed as they got on the train.

By signing acts of Congress that got rid of these restrictions, Obama did the sensible thing.

So now they’ve been called out on their Chicken Little response to everything we support by a sympathetic group, and that can’t be fun. But the knife has got to hurt a little more since the support for the national park carry is justified by the fact that it hasn’t caused any notable problems. While I doubt it ever will cause problems when it actually takes effect, I’m sure that Peter Hamm is writing a swift response to claim the end of civilization in and around national parks won’t happen until next month. Just wait, that sky will fall soon!

Maybe now the Brady staffers will get a very small dose of what it’s like when the media grandstands on the issue without actually knowing what the hell they are talking about. We’ve been dealing with the problem for years.

A Lesson in Tolerance

Jennifer shares the tale of the day her son learned about no tolerance rules the hard way. I read it in a lesson on just how tolerant Jennifer is of idiots.

I know I could not have restrained my laughter. I also would have advised the vice principal to take me off of speaker phone to let him know exactly what I thought about the situation. But then again, I have little tolerance for the public education system as a whole.

Soda More Expensive than Beer

It will be cheaper to have a cold beer than a cold soda if New York’s governor has his way. It may not be a good beer, but beer nonetheless.

â€œA six-pack of soda is going to cost you approximately $4.99â€ if the penny-an-ounce tax goes through, Mr. Eusebio said, â€œwhere you can pick up beer from $2.99 to $3.99.â€

Off to the neighborhood supermarket, where it turned out that Mr. Eusebioâ€™s math was not far off. With the tax, a six-pack of Coca-Cola or Pepsi would cost 2 cents more than a six-pack of the cheapest beer in the store.

It’s a crusade for cash to bridge the gap due to too much spending, and it’s been framed as a health initiative to tax people away from unhealthy beverages. It’s unclear what the next taxes on beer will be when there’s a upward spike in alcoholism.

Hayek vs. Kenyes Smackdown

If you want more of this, I strongly suggest reading some Russ Roberts novels. Yes, novels. He writes novels about economics.

Volokh Readers on Netflix?

I noticed that InAlienable is due for release tomorrow, so I immediately added it to our queue and bumped it up to the top. We have a disc they will receive tomorrow, so it would work out perfectly…

Except there must be a lot of Volokh Conspiracy readers on Netflix. That’s got to be why InAlienable went from available tomorrow to “Short Wait.” :)