Government Theft 201

From The Fleecing of California's Gun Purchasers

This week, the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee will be considering a measure that demonstrates the absolute worst in government incompetence and thievery. SB 140 (Leno) outright steals money from a fund entirely paid for (and supposedly dedicated to) law-abiding gun owners to fund the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) failed firearms enforcement program.

When originally imposed on California citizens, the DROS fee was mandated to "...be no more than is necessary..." for the California DOJ to perform the specific duties of background checks and registration. However,

For years, the Department has unlawfully over-collected DROS fees from law-abiding gun owners -- gun owners who spent money and time to comply with the law and submit to the background check process. Where the DROS fees should have been lowered years ago to account for the massive surplus (basically, unconstitutionally assessed taxed), the DOJ has stubbornly refused to lower the fees in spite of substantial evidence of their bad faith accounting.

The man who steal with a gun risks being injured by his victim and is usually branded a criminal and outlaw. The man who steals with a pen risks little: He has the power of the state on his side and is often rewarded with public office. The latter is clearly the case here. When the government starts raiding funds it collected in contravention of the law, it becomes an example of exactly why we Americans have guns in the first place.

I see Stupid People.

Lets get this straight.

A couple of DeeJays in Florida pulled an April Fools joke by telling thier listeners that a chemical called "dihydrogen monoxide" was coming out of their taps. The more common name for "dihydrogen monoxide" is H₂O or just plain water.

Some of the listeners panicked.

Florida country radio morning-show hosts Val St. John and Scott Fish are currently serving indefinite suspensions and possibly worse over a successful April Fools' Day prank. They told their listeners that "dihydrogen monoxide" was coming out of the taps throughout the Fort Myers area. Dihydrogen monoxide is water.

The popular deejays are mainly in all this trouble (potentially of a felony level) because their listeners panicked so much — about the molecular makeup of their drinking water, however unwittingly — that Lee County utility officials had to issue a county-wide statement calming the fears of chemistry challenged Floridians.

Two lesson here. First, the folks listening to that show must have an average IQ somewhere between dumb and dumber. Second, the DA must either be equally stupid or simply evil if he or she even considered pressing charges against the two for telling the truth. Since when is it a crime to tell the truth?

Apparently the two are back on the air and charges are unlikely. That does not absolve the dummies of their stupidity.

Florida DJs May Face Felony for April Fools' Water Joke Worse Than Rubio's

Duck Fathers Chicken!

Well, we were warned that if we started down the road of gay marriage, things like this would happen.

Next, the Turducken: Scientists Say a Duck Has Fathered a Chicken

Seriously, this is a little creepy but still a pretty neat application of genetic engineering. In addition I learned a new thing: I'd never even heard of a "turducken" before.

Let Them Eat Shit.

This self-absorbed bitch illustrates just how out of touch DC is with reality.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Sequester nearly starving staffers

Automatic federal cuts are bringing staffers to the brink of starvation, suggested Debbie Wasserman Schultz, at a recent House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.

Restaurants on the House side of Congress are increasing in cost so much that aides are being “priced out” of a good meal, she said, as Fox News reported. The comments came by way of a discussion about the impacts of the sequester on lawmakers’ office budgets. Rep. Jim Moran said he may be forced to lay off a staffer — and then Ms. Wasserman Schultz weighed in with her tale of hard times.

Just to clarify: An 8-ounce bowl of Ham and Bean soup at the Cannon Office Building’s carry-out café costs $2. A gourmet wrap or sliced bread sandwich sells for about $5. And in the Longworth Building’s sit-down cafeteria, a serving of stuffed chicken, asparagus and mashed potatoes sells for about $7, Fox News finds.

Meanwhile, Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s staffers earn between $60,000 and $160,000 per year, Fox News reports.

Here is Something a Little Weird

I came across a forum post on a obscure Russian made revolver called by the uninspired name of the "AEK 906". Out of curiosity I searched a bit more and found this page briefly describing the gun in both its 9x18mm and 9x19mm variants. What makes is unusual is, as you can see from the image below, it fires from the bottom chamber rather from the top like a conventional revolver.

Sound familiar?

The weird part in all this is that the AEK 906 was also known as the "Nosorog" which is Russian for "rhinoceros"! I wonder if the folks at Chiappa Firearms knew about that when they named their new revolver the "Rhino".

Will no one rid us of this meddling zombie?

New Gun Laws in Colorado

Earlier this month, Colorado Sheriff John Cooke said he would not enforce new state gun laws.

Weld County Sheriff John Cooke won’t enforce new state gun measures expected to be signed into law by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, arguing the proposed firearms restrictions give a "false sense of security."

Yesterday, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed the bills into law. Looks like it is nut up or shut up time in Colorado.

The Thin Blue Whine

A picture truly worth a thousand words.

A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.

As 16 police officers were arraigned at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors and investigators, chanting "Down with the D.A." and "Ray Kelly, hypocrite."

Read the rest here.

Dumbass Gun Owner Award

Dumbass Gun Owner Award

And the nominee is:

Cops: Pa. guard shot finger trying to remove ring

Excerpt:

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal prison guard has been charged with shooting his own finger in a drunken attempt to remove his wedding ring during an argument with his wife at their northwestern Pennsylvania home, police said.

A criminal complaint said Bradford police were called just before 9 p.m. March 2 and were met by Alfredo Malespini III, 31, who told officers he was "trying to get rid of his wedding ring" and decided to "shoot it off." The Bradford Era first reported the shooting on Friday.

The gunshot badly mangled Malespini's finger, but didn't remove the ring, police said.

All I can say about this is, "Stupid has consequences."

End the Public Library?

As I read a recent article from Fast Company entitled Best-selling Author: "Public Libraries Deprive Writers Of Royalties" I was reminded of a line from the movie Good Will Hunting:

See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you're gonna start doing some thinking on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One, don't do that. and, two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fucking education you could've got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library.

How many of the self made men of the past got their education from borrowed books and the reading room of a public library? Abraham Lincoln is, arguably, the American icon of such achievement. Frederic Douglas, Thomas Jefferson and Lysander Spooner also come to mind as mostly self taught men.

I know some -- maybe most -- publishers would like to do away with the lending of books and even eliminate the used book market. My anarcho-libertarian sympathies are on the side of letting them try. However, beginning in 1656 when a Boston merchant named Robert Keayne willed his collection of books to the town of Boston, the publicly accessible library has worked pretty well to help spread knowledge in this country. Hence, my conservative inclination is to preserve the institution even if I question the wisdom of supporting it through taxation.

H/T to Grant Cunningham and The Revolver Liberation Alliance