Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 1674 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

From the City That Brought Us the Cheesesteak?

Apparently the City of Philadelphia is considering its own ban on trans-fat, modeled after that of New York.

Major food retailers such as Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken have banned trans fats. Trans-fat oil, associated with bad cholesterol, is scheduled to be eliminated in New York City by July. A proposed New Jersey ban on trans-fats in restaurants has remained in a legislative committee since October. Philadelphia’s City Council is scheduled to vote today on the fate of fryer oil in restaurants and food carts.

The article is mostly about local universities removing trans-fats from their cafeterias, which I’m all for. I have no issues with restaurants and food service providers removing them voluntarily, through market forces. Apparently my alma mater is getting in on this too:

Drexel University, which also contracts with Sodexho, switched to trans-fat-free oil in January 2006. In addition to its bread, tortillas and cookies, the school will get trans-fat-free doughnuts and cakes, said Marie Faherty, resident district manager for Sodexho there.

Dan Steinberg, Drexel’s Student Government president and a senior graphic-design major, said he hadn’t noticed a change in the food’s taste.

“A lot of that is a mental thing. I’ve been a resident assistant for three years, and coming down here with my residents, the food gets better every year,” he said.

The food is getting better every year? This isn’t the Drexel I went to! When I went, they still had 32nd street open and lots of artery clogging street vendor food, which is where most of us ate. The cafeteria was known as the “all you can stomach” plan, since if you signed up, you could eat as much as you wanted to, but who wanted to? Now, the street vendors are gone, and the cafeteria is serving tasty food with no trans-fats? Crazy.

139 Counts? Jayzus!

Vince Fumo, long time State Senator from Phiadelphia, is facing 139 felony indictments from a federal grand jury.

The feds said Fumo, 63, one of the state’s most influential power brokers, used his Senate workers to clean his house and provide personal services, and tapped a charity he helped organize to provide him with cars, tools and other goodies.

The charges include conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return.

If convicted of all charges, Fumo, a state senator since 1978, could face from five to 15 years behind bars, sources said.

That’s a lot of time, but if found guilty, I hope he serves it all. When I speak of getting criminals off the streets of Philadelphia, it would seem that includes a fair number of their politicians. Maybe that’s why they would rather disarm us than lock up criminals. It would mean locking up too many of their own.

I should point out that Fumo was one of the Philly politicians that had close ties with the NRA (yes, there are some pro-gun politicians in the city), but corrupt politicians can go to hell, no matter how much they might agree with me on other issues. 139 felony indictments is no laughing matter. We’ll see how this plays out in the federal courts.

Adoption of the M16

Chris Byrne asks, “Who’s at Fault for the M16?”

Actually, much of why McNamara made the decision, was because he was supremely pissed off at the Army Ordnance board at their deception (and they were continuing to insist the trials were legitimate even after the report came out). McNamara felt that he needed to force the board to heel.

Initially the AOB absolutely refused McNamaras order that the M16 be adopted. McNamara forced the AOB by direct order to retry the weapon, with ARPA as an overeseeing agency. The board dickered so much, and insisted on so many changes to the rifle; in fact saying that even with the changes it was unsuitable; that McNamara ordered that they adopt the M16 as is, with no changes, anyway.

Those changes were actually rather important; including the chrome bore, the forward assist, and a different twist rate for the rifling. They would later be implemented in the M16A1 (and later revisions); but because of the boards hostility with McNamara, they were not put into the intial production models as issued.

After McNamara overruled the board completely, they went about deliberately making sure the M16 would fail; because they wanted it to be a spectacular disaster, so they could go back to the M14 and give McNamara a black eye.

Great post!Â Be sure to go read the whole thing.

Crime Can Hit Close to Home

We’ve been having a rash of robberies in a neighboring township.

At an Exxon station near the 7-11, a thief recently made off with $1,000s and beating a clerk with a hammer.

In the 7-11 robbery, the clerk opened the door for the robber, which is normally locked due to several recent robberies. The camera captured the suspect hurdling the counter and brandishing what police said was a 6 inch revolver.

The suspect grabbed about $100 in cash before shooting the clerk and running away.

“As he is moving to the back of the store, he shoots him in the back, the bullet goes through his back and ends up being lodged in his chest,” said Lt. MacPherson.

I don’t live in a high crime area, but this highlights the importance of not getting complacent.Â Given this guy has beaten one clerk with a hammer, and shot another, if I happen to be in a store when a robbery goes down, after reading this, I’m not giving the robber the benefit of doubt.Â It’s important that we all be prepared, and carry at all times we’re legally able to. Even in normally quiet neighborhoods, you can attract the criminal element.

It’s Called Natural Selection

A ranch or cabin in the middle of nowhere is really starting to look like a more attractive option than living anywhere near New York City.Â From Slashdot:

New York State Senator Carl Kruger is looking to institute a $100 fine for using electronic gadgets while crossing the street. Citing three pedestrian deaths in his Brooklyn district as the main driving reason he believe Government has an obligation to protect its citizens.

That’s three people who won’t be able to pass their defective street crossing genes onto future generations.Â My mother always taught me to look both ways before crossing the street.Â When I was in college and commuted to school via rail, and listened to headphones, I knew to take them off and listen for the Amtrak trains that zoomed past a 100MPH before crossing the tracks.Â Of course, today you can’t do that, because they put up fences to stop you.Â You have to go the long way around now, whether you want to risk it or not.

I have one basic philosophy when it comes to my relationship with governemnt: leave me the hell alone.Â Â I’ll pay my taxes, leave other people to their quiet enjoyment of life, serve in the military if called on, do jury duty, and all those things we have to do as part of a society.Â But don’t start looking out after me.Â I can do that just fine on my own.Â If I want to cross the street while talking on a cell phone and risk getting hit by a bus, that’s my damned business.Â Life is risky, and sometimes people make bad choices.Â There’s nothing government can, or should, do about that.

Lost Begins!

The ABC series “Lost” starts again in about 40 minutes.Â My addiction to the show will unfortunatly cut into blogging time tonight.Â I noticed that Lost is filmed in Hawaii, which probably explains why all the Kalashnikovs on the show have the silly looking Clinton magazines.Â The odd thing is, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them with the full sized mags in them as well on the series.Â Maybe they don’t shoot everything in Hawaii.Â A few of the “Others” have been seen with M1As on the show.Â Sayid seems to like the SKS.Â Some on the show need to learn the lesson that when you’re expecting a fight, take a rifle, and take 5 friends with rifles.Â Heading off to look for trouble with a 9mm pistol seems like a bad idea.

What’s Going on With the NSSF?

Dave Hardy points to an NSSF¹ statment warning gun owners about Rudy Giuliani and his record. Now, I totally agree with the NSSF on the matter of Giuliani, but what doesn’t make sense to me is why the NSSF is cozying up to Mitt Romney, who’s record on the second amendment is nearly as despicable.

What has Romney promised or stated to you guys that make you feel okay about him? I’d really like to know. I don’t exactly trust the NSSF, because it was the manufacturers that got us the GCA ’68 importation restrictions. I don’t always expect that NSSF’s interests align themselves nicely with the shooting community, but they aren’t doing themselves, or us, any favors by blowing kisses to someone this early in the game. Especially someone like Romney, who has a record of banning cosmetically incorrect guns, among other things.

¹For the non-gun blogger types that read, the NSSF is the National Sports Shooting Foundation, which is the group that represents the interests of the gun industry. Despite what the anti-gunners say, the NRA does not represent the industry, they represent the shooters. The two organizations don’t always have like agendas. Romney was invited to SHOT, which is the NSSF’s trade show, a few weeks ago.

McCain Wants to Mend Fences

According to Captain Ed and Mary Catherine Ham, John McCain wants to mend fences with bloggers and play nice. Ed thinks McCain has a ways to go:

John McCain has a record of courageous stands on behalf of the war on terror and on spending, two key issues for conservatives in the 2008 cycle. However, as MK points out, he has not taken a market-driven approach on campaign finance reform, instead relying on intrusive government control of political speech. How committed will he be on free markets as President in any sense, if not in political speech? He now sings the conservative tune on tax cuts, but we still remember McCain the Maverick opposing them when George Bush pushed them through Congress — and his part in blocking the efforts to make them permanent.

I won’t ding McCain too much for opposing the tax cuts, but he has to repudiate that Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act if he wants to mend fences with me. My chief problem with McCain is that I think he’s too convinced of his own correctness and infallibility, and that makes him shut his mind off to other ways of looking at things. It’s some of the same “I know what’s best!” traits that I despise in Hillary Clinton. My problem with John McCain is that, while he seems to support freedom as a political issue, he doesn’t seem to grasp freedom as a philosophical concept.

Back to Captain Ed:

He may well wind up as the best of the choices that present themselves during this long campaign season, and I would encourage open minds and ears for the next year. However, until McCain either makes a case for government oversight over political speech that convinces conservatives or pledges to reverse the BCRA, I don’t see him winning many converts, no matter how expert his campaign staff is — and they are certainly working their hearts out early for McCain.

Yup! Let’s not forget he needs to start acting like he’s from Arizona on the gun issue too.

What’s In a Name?

I guess it’s time I told everyone the story behind the name that no one seems to be able to spell.Â I’ve seen people spell it Sebastin, Sebastion, Sebastard, and Sebasturd.Â Unlike some folks, it’s not my real name.Â I have chosen not to reveal my real name, not because I’m private, or afraid of anyone, but because I don’t want employers, potential employers, or coworkers finding out what I do in my spare time.Â Also, it would totally ruin my fantasy of someday meeting Ed Rendell, or any of the other politicians I regularly impugn, and have them say something like “Well, it’s been nice talking to you.” then hit them with “It has?Â Ha ha!Â I am your arch-nemesis Sebastian.”Â Well, OK, that will probably never happen, but I can dream can’t I?

When I was in college, I was a member of a group called The DUsers, which was a MUG (Macintosh Users Group – we were the first in the country actually).Â A bunch of DUsers and former DUsers (pronounced ‘doozers’ or ‘d-users’, your pick) ran something called a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon).Â When I first went to sign on to play, I tried to use my middle name (John), which was taken, so next I tried my middle name in German (Johann), also taken. Â Being a classical music fan and pianist (at the time, I stopped after college, and it ain’t like riding a bicycle), the next thing I tried was Sebastian, after Johann Sebastian Bach, and that one was free.Â I’ve been using the moniker for anonymous internet purposes since 1994, and have gotten so used to it, I’d probably answer to it in public.

The MUD that we ran was called The Dragon’s Den.Â It’s still operating today, though no one really does much on it these days.Â We have a few players left, but it’s mostly a means to communicate with my old college friends; the instant messenger of the early 1990s.Â You can still log on.Â I’m still Sebastian, and sadly, still follow my habit of logging on whenever at computer.Â Old habits die hard I guess.

As for the blog: my college friend and MUDder, David (a.k.a. Zeron), picked out the name.Â I thought it was appropriate, because I always thought it would be a cold day in hell before I would start up a real blog.Â But someone managed to talk me into it.

Read My Lips, More New Taxes

Ed Rendell is a tax raising madman! In addition to a 1% boost in the state’s sales tax, he’s also now proposing an increase in the state gasoline tax as part of the 2007-2008 state budget:

â€œWe propose a tax on gasoline. But for the first time we propose a tax on those who make gasoline rather than those who buy it.â€

Umm, Ed, what’s the difference? You think the gasoline refiners are going to just eat that tax rather than pass it on to consumers? Do you think we’re that stupid? Plus, I would point out that Sunoco is a huge employer for both Pennsylvania and particulary the Philadelphia area. We have plenty of other refiners in the state too. It would seem to me that a new tax on them would not really encourage them to create more jobs. If there’s one thing that Pennsylvania definitely does not need it’s higher business taxes. That’s what this is. Don’t try to pull the wool over our eyes.

Oh, also:

In his speech, Rendell also called for legislation that would allow local governments to make their own gun laws and would limit handgun sales to one per month.

Push that, and we NRA types will do everything we can to make sure the Democrats lose their newfound control of the PA house. You got into office by keeping your mouth largely shut on the gun issue. Open it again, now that you have lame duck status, and you’ll hurt your party in downstream elections. We didn’t elect you governor to act like the Mayor of Philadelphia. But even that’s not enough:

Rendell also wants to increase the tax on waste haulers, increase cigarette taxes by a dime a pack, impose new taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco products, and impose a surcharge on electricity of about 45 cents a month for the average residential user.

Jesus Christ, Ed. Given the cold weather we’ve been having lately, you’re making Arizona or Texas start to look damned attractive. And you wonder why young professionals like myself don’t stay in the state?