Politics – Page 398 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Cigar Tax: 20,000% Increase

They want to take it from 5 cents to $10 dollars. No word yet on what Hillary’s position is on the cigar tax, but I’m betting she’s for it. This will be sure to create a burgeoning black market in tobacco products, which will, of course, become violent. The federal government won’t outright outlaw tobacco, but they will tax it out of existence.

I’m really glad to see those Democrats protecting people’s civil liberties against the evil Republicans, let me tell you.

UPDATE: Sigivald points out:

Closer reading suggests they want to raise it from 5 cents to 54 percent, with a cap of $10.

Not $10 per cigar, flat.

Not good, by any means, but not the same as a $10 tax on a $8 cigar.

One of the problems with blogging is not always having the time to read everything very carefully. Â Corrections and clarifications are always appreciated.

Of course, I still think it’s a crappy tax increase.

John Lott Editorial in Inquirer

John Lott has an editorial running in the Inquirer:

But it is not just a problem of police. The city is seeing lower conviction rates, and it is not keeping criminals in jail for very long. One could make up for this difference by hiring more police – research has shown the number of police officers to be the main factor in reducing crime. But Philadelphia’s problem is how it uses the police it has.

Pointing to more gun-control laws as the solution is simply a way for politicians to pass the blame. Besides, such proposals offer little hope for actually reducing the murder rate. They’ve all been tried before, from one-gun-a-month limits and reporting stolen guns to the ultimate catchall – letting Philadelphia pass its own gun laws again.

Read the whole thing.

New Pennsylvania Gun Control?

It’s been a busy day. The PA legislature has passed two bills. Don’t believe anything the Inquirer tells you! They are about as ignorant as on gun matters as a family of drunken gerbils. As best I can tell, these are:

House Bill 24

House Bill 1392

Now, I don’t have today’s session notes yet, so I don’t know these are the bills for sure, but it’s all I was able to find in the database. Now let’s see what they are about. First, HB24:

Â§ 6127. Firearm tracing.

(a) Illegal possession.–Upon recovering a firearm from the possession of anyone under 21 years of age who is not permitted by Federal or State law to possess a firearm, a local law enforcement agency shall use the best available information, including a firearms trace where necessary, to determine how and from where the person under 21 years of age gained possession of the firearm.

(b) Tracing.–Local law enforcement shall use the National Tracing Center of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in complying with subsection (a).

Notification.–Local law enforcement agencies shall advise the Pennsylvania State Police of all firearms that are recovered in accordance with this section.

(d) Registry.–The Pennsylvania State Police shall maintain registry of all information reported in accordance with this section.

This is a useless turd of a law, and I don’t like the registration bullshit. But it doesn’t change anything. My firearms are already in a state police registry, thanks to our Supreme Court ignoring the plain meaning of our state’s registration prohibition. I’ve been told we can expect a fix to this legislatively at some point (probably when Fast Eddie is out), which would wipe out this law, in addition to the state police registry that already exists. This law doesn’t really change our gun laws, it wastes resources, sure, but it’s not anything to get upset over.

The next one, HB1382:

Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in theft and related offenses, defining “firearm.”

“Firearm.” Any weapon that is designed to or may readily be converted to expel any projectile by the action of an explosive or the frame or receiver of any such weapon.

This does not change the definition of firearm under the UFA, this changes it ONLY under the theft and receiving stolen property statutes. Remember my post on UFA oddities from the other day, in Pennsylvania, when the law mentions firearm, you have to define it, because it means different things in different laws. All this law does is clarify that when the receiving stolen property statues say firearm, they mean any firearm, not the UFA definition. I actually thought this was already the case, but the courts would be required to use the definition that most favors the defendant if the statute does make a clear distinction as to which definition they are using.

I don’t know about you, but if some scumbag breaks into my house, steals my guns and sells them on the streets, I want the law throwing a felony indictment his way. I don’t think this law is a turd at all; I actually support it. The Inky makes it out to be a sweeping definition change in state law. It is not.

Hopefully this will allay some of Liberty Sphere’s concerns. The first bill is useless, changes nothing, and likely will be repealed in a few years when the legislature fixes the registration problem, and the second is actually not a gun control bill, but a criminal control bill.

Also, anyone love how the Tiahrt Amendment is keeping the city from tracing all those guns? You’d almost think the Brady Campaign and the media were lying to us about it preventing the police access to the tracing system.

Philadelphia: Who’s Getting Shot

The Inky released a great article this morning detailing the cities problem with violence:

A new study by Philadelphia criminologists says that an increasing number of people shot in the city have had previous brushes with the law.

Twenty-four percent of shooting victims last year had pending criminal court cases against them at the time they were shot, according to a report by researchers with the Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole Department. In 2002, 18 percent of shooting victims had “open bills” against them.

So, basically, the people getting shot and doing the shooting probably shouldn’t be on the streets. But the city politicians continue to blame the rest of the state’s gun laws for their problem.

While not wanting to minimize the killings, Kurtz said: “Many of these people were not choirboys on their way to church when they got shot.”

What a shocker.

According to Sherman, as many as three-quarters of the murders in Philadelphia may involve convicted or charged offenders who are under the supervision of the probation department or another supervision agency, such as the court’s pretrial division.

Sherman testified that adult offenders are seven times as likely to commit murder as the average city resident, and four times as likely to get murdered.

We need a 1.6 million dollar computer system to tell us that? For twenty bucks, you probably could have asked any cop, any paramedic, or emergency room responder.

“Ronulans”

I don’t know if IMAO coined this new term for Ron Paul supporters, but I really like it.

Moore & Stossel

Via Bruce, I found a story about an interview with Michael Moore by John Stossel on his movie “Sicko”.Â One thing I’ve always hated about Moore is how he presents his arguments, which is how I’ve often feel when talking to people of the more extreme left.Â It’s probably not surprise to anyone that I don’t support an expansive welfare state, but nor do I buy that libertarian line that we can solve our social problems with private charity.Â I do think private charity has a role, but there are good reasons for there to be some (albeit minimal, and not necessarily federal) government sponsored safety net.Â The primary reasons are:

Although safety nets allow people to freeload, they also allow people to take risks without having to worry about becoming destitute.
They free people from the burdens of their families and communities.Â A lot of conservatives are probably opposed to these policies for exactly this reason, but family and community ties, if they are especially strong, can arguably result in loss of freedom. Â Think Iraq, where family comes first, and tribe comes second.
We’re an incredibly wealthy society, and we can provide safety nets without creating undue burdens on taxpayers.Â Our tax rates are high now in large part because we’re providing universal social insurance, without much regard to need.

That’s why I get pissed off at folks like Michael Moore, who suggest the solution to people not being able to afford health insurance is to create another universal benefit without any means testing.Â I don’t need the government to provide me with health care; I can do it on my own.Â I also get pissed when they suggest that I’m a selfish, heartless bastard for thinking I pay too much in taxes to government.Â I’m fine with the government providing some safety nets, as long as taxes stay reasonable.Â European levels of taxation are not reasonable.Â Â Our current levels of taxation are not reasonable.Â I’d like to see what they could be if we rejected this idea of universal benefits, and instead only focused on the people who need it.

Action Park

Thanks to David Bernstein for reminding me of this place. Read the whole thing, it’s quite funny. Here’s an excerpt:

Super Speed Water Slides: These were two water slides, set slightly apart from the rest of the park, that took advantage of nearly vertical slopes to allow riders to attain higher speeds than usually possible. One started with riders going almost vertically downwards and was covered with screening for the first several feet.

As barriers on the side of the slides were very low, lifeguards reminded every user to remain flat on their back with their arms at the side as they descended since there was no way to ride it otherwise and stay on. The fall from both slides had the potential for very serious injury.

Those who made it to the bottom found their progress arrested by water, which made a large splash, and then a small pool. The speed at which riders met the end resulted in many getting wedgies and enemas from the experience.^[13] Employees kept fishnets for scooping out the occasional nugget of excrement or tampon.

This statement I think pretty much sums up what we’ve lost as a society byÂ treating children as fragile eggs who have to be protected from everything:

Action Park made adults of a generation of Tri-State Area kids who strolled through its blood-stained gates, by teaching us the truth about life: it is not safe, you will get hurt a lot, and you’ll ride all the way home burnt beyond belief.

Another patron notes:

Action Park was a true rite of passage for any New Jerseyan of my generation. When I get to talking about it with other Jerseyans, we share stories as if we are veterans who served in combat together. I suspect that many of us may have come closest to death on some of those rides up in Vernon Valley. I consider it a true shame that future generations will never know the terror of proving their grit at New Jersey’s most dangerous amusement park.

But not today.Â No.Â We can’t let kids do anything dangerous.

One Away From the Record

The Philadelphia Phillies are one loss away from being the most losing team in Baseball:

Currently, the Phillies have lost 9,999 games since their first game on May 1, 1883.

While no fan wants the team to suffer another loss, it would be fitting for the record 10,000th loss to fall on Friday the 13th as they take on the St. Louis Cardinals.

There’s even a website.

Ron Paul: Startling Revelations

I’ve come across a piece of startling news.Â All along most of us have thought that Ron Paul was the one libertarian in Congress.Â Well, through an informant, I’ve come to learn the truth.Â Ron Paul is actually an alien from the planet Simtar Alpha 5, and is part of an alien conspiracy to take over the Earth and enslave mankind.Â The Simtarians have actually been infiltrating our society for quite some time.Â Who crashed the planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon? Â It wasn’t George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it was Ron Paul!The Simtarians needed to strike at the highest levels of our economy and military.Â The reason no one saw any explosive wiring in the World Trade Center, or never saw the demolition team, is because they were Simtarians!Â Â They are masters of disguise.Â If you’re thinking this is far fetched, look carefully at the smoke debris from the tower collapse, you will see an image of Ron Paul.

The Iraq War wasnâ€™t started on behalf of the zionist conspiracy. Everyone has it all wrong, the real conspiracy is the Ron Paul/Simtarian conspiracy. Saddam Hussein was also a Simtarian, but they quickly realized that their plans for world conquest were never going to be realized through him, so they sent Ron Paul. It was actually Ron Paul who convinced Bush and Cheney to attack Iraq so he could get Saddam out of the way and begin the plan anew.Â The plan was brilliant!Â He would get Saddam out of the way, secretly working with Rumsfeld and Wolfwitz (Simtarians both), while appearing the entire time to actually be against the war, maintaining his reputation as a stalwart anti-interventionist, and maintaining the minions of naive college students who keep his Simtarian ambitions for world conquest alive.

You can call me a loony conspiracy theorist, but youâ€™ll all realize I was right when your kids are learning Simtarian in school and the body mask comes off Ron Paul and you all realize weâ€™re ruled by a lizard.

Ban Bike Tires, For the Children

I’m always wondering what New Jersey is going to stoop to next.Â Â Apparently, it’s banning quick release bike tires for tires under a certain size.Â They are prone to accidents:

(AP) TRENTON, N.J. Certain bicycles with quick-release wheels couldn’t be sold in New Jersey under legislation approved Monday by the Assembly. The bikes allow wheels to be removed without tools so they can be quickly secured with a chain lock or transported in vehicles. Lawmakers said they are prone to accidents. Under the bill, it would be illegal to sell bicycles with quick-release wheels if the bicycle has a front wheel less than 20 inches in diameter. Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, a Democrat from Gloucester, said the bill mainly targets children’s bicycles.

How many times did we fall off our bikes when we were kids?Â Several for me, and I’m just fine. Â Of course, others would say that explains a lot.