Moore v. Madigan

This case was a challenge to the constitutionality of Illinois' complete ban on carrying firearms outside the home. Illinois is the last state to have such a ban, and the 7th Circuit has found it unconstitutional.

Judge Posner's opinion is here [pdf]. There are three relevant points:

1. To deny the right to keep and bear arms outside the confines of the home is to divorce it from its purpose of self-defense, and that's inconsistent with the Supreme Court's findings in Heller and McDonald.


2. Rational basis doesn't fly when it comes to the 2nd Amendment. Illinois needed to make a "strong showing" to justify a ban on carry, and they failed to do so.


3. Claims that public safety may be adversely affected (the "blood in the streets" argument) are unclear, inconclusive, and have little bearing.

This is a big win, and not just for Illinois. Congratulations are due to the 2nd Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA). This wasn't an easy one.

Meanwhile, in Chicago...

Illinois State Senator Donne Trotter has long opposed the idea of allowing civilian concealed carry in his state. During a 1995 hearing on the matter, he had this to say:

There's a lot of individuals out here who do look at this as an opportunity to be that vigilante, to be that support person to the police officer who isn't there, which is one of the things we addressed just yesterday (...) What you're doing here just basically creating part-time police officers who have not gone through the extensive training, who have not had the psychological evaluations, who will be getting out there who feel now that they're--they are stronger, they are badder, they are tougher because they have this nine-shooter on their hip.

...and on Wednesday, he was arrested for attempting to bring a concealed handgun through security at O'Hare airport.

This one really speaks for itself, so I'll just leave it at that.

Return of the Glock 7

It looks like the anti-gunners will do anything to push that "conversation" they keep saying they want with us. Today's example is a demand by Brady Campaign poster boy Steve Israel to renew the Undetectable Firearms Act.

Signed into law by President Reagan in 1988, the Act was a response to fears over newer methods of fabricating firearms parts. At the time, there was great concern about the polymer frame of the new Glock pistol, and the possibility that it could be invisible to airport metal detectors ⁽¹⁾.

It sunset after ten years in 1998. It was then resurrected and signed in 2003 by President Bush ⁽²⁾ as Public Law 108-174. It is set to expire again next year.

So, why the big push for renewal? Folks are using 3d printers to make guns. You might think this is illegal, but it's not. The Gun Control Act is fairly silent on this, prohibiting only the assembly of NFA items or "non-sporting" guns made from imported parts. If you make them with the specific intention of resale for profit, you could run into trouble for manufacturing without a license and failing to pay the ITAR fees. Otherwise, you're good to go.

It looks like the technology isn't quite there yet, but it will be very soon. It'll be very interesting to see what folks will come up with when they decide to get original and stop wasting time making lowers for Eugene Stoner's poodle shooter.

(1) That is, it would be, if you removed the steel parts, which would include the slide, barrel, firing pin, firing pin spring, locking block, extractor, trigger pins, trigger bar, recoil spring, frame rails, slide lock, slide lock spring, trigger bar, magazine catch spring, and connector. So, um. Yeah. It is, however, fun to ask Glock sales reps when they're going to market the Glock 7, just to watch them bristle.

(2) In case you didn't notice, both Presidents who signed the Ban were Republicans. Feel free to stop ramming that whole Republicans=Pro Gun/Democrats=Anti Gun cliche down my throat any time, folks.

Dave Brubeck 1920-2012

Dave Brubeck passed away one day short of his 90th birthday. Most people know him for "Take Five," which might be the most popular piece of music ever written in 5/4. One of his talents was performing in odd time signatures, and he was able to do so with grace and flair.



Time Out is one of the best-selling jazz records in history, and rightfully so. The follow-up was Time Further Out, which I consider to be an even better record, and his 1963 Carnegie Hall performance is phenomenal.

He was never the biggest revolutionary on the scene, but he never aspired to that. He was a tremendous influence on pianists and composers who followed, and he leaves us with a splendid body of recorded work.

Piers Morgan. Again.

I'm not sure why CNN hired this hack. He used to run the Daily Mirror, a British newspaper a scant step above tabloids in credibility. In 2004, they ran photographs purporting to show the Queen's Lancashire Regiment abusing and torturing Iraqi prisoners.

It was a big deal. It made the cover of Time. It put Morgan on the map.

There was one small problem, however. The pictures were fake. In the ensuing fallout, Morgan was fired. To this day, he has not apologized.

So, now he's all over CNN, and he has a global reach for his opinions. He has gone on record supporting Bob Costas' prime-time television remarks on gun control, and he now thinks he understands the Bill of Rights.

If I'm to follow his interpretation of it, the 1st Amendment doesn't cover the mimeograph or the internet. The 4th Amendment doesn't apply to wiretaps or surveillance drones. By his logic, the 8th Amendment provides no protection from kneecapping, electrocution, or waterboarding, since those things weren't around at the founding, either.

Good to know, Piers. Say, how many guys working your security detail carry guns?

Halftime Was a Downer

Saturday, a guy killed his girlfriend, then made a show of ending his own life in front of a bunch of folks. It's horrible and senseless, but because he happened to be a guy who got paid gobs of money to play a game, it became national news. At times like this, we need pretty people to tell us what to think. As we know from such luminaries as Bono and Janeane Garofalo, popular entertainers are the most qualified to do this.

Thing is, they don't know much about football, so we need a guy who gets paid gobs of money to talk about the people who get paid gobs of money to play the game. Enter Bob Costas. He has a truly epic toupee, but he's not much of a deep thinker. When he decided he had to say something on the matter, he chose to quote Jason Whitlock, another guy who gets paid gobs of money to blog about...well, you get the drift.

Since the writer in question (and by extension, Costas) chose to blame guns, the whole thing turned into a burbling crockpot of ermagherd.

Iain M. Banks: The Hydrogen Sonata

Iain Banks' Culture series doesn't lend itself to easy summations. Entire essays have been written on the world he set up, so I won't go into much detail.

Essentially, Banks has created a liberal utopia on a galactic scale. Given a limitless supply of easy energy and near-omnipotent manufacturing technology, the citizens of the Culture want for nothing material. Tedious administration is done by artificial intelligence, leaving normal folks to live their lives as they please. In such a society, property is an archaic concept, something that is even reflected in their language. With scarcity removed from the equation, the only real crime is coercion.

Still, every society hits a wall eventually. In Banks' world, self-destruction or a collapse into barbarism is unlikely, and the end point for civilizations is simple ennui. What do you do when you just feel like you're going through the motions, with nothing left to contribute?

Well, there's always suicide.

Going Mobile

I like the layout of this site, but it doesn't translate well to mobile devices.



When I wrote the theme, I rendered the elements in percentage units, rather than as fixed measurements. As a result, resizing the window allows text to reflow naturally. On the mobile version of Chrome, this works well, as zooming the body text adjusts the flow. However, the sidebar and header text are nearly impossible to see. Firefox simply zooms in on the text, without adjusting the flow.

So, I'm left with several options. The first is to change the structure of the site to be more compatible with phones and tablets. That's not very desirable, as it's going to lose functionality on the desktop. The second is to serve up a different theme for mobile devices. This entails maintaining two different versions of the site. No thanks.

The third option involves a WordPress plugin called WPtouch.

Wounded Warrior Project

A couple of weeks ago, Tom Gresham offered to interview someone from the Wounded Warrior Project. They declined, as they didn't want to appear on a show that promotes firearms. It struck many of us as odd, but it is confirmed on their website.

WWP does not co-brand, create cause marketing campaigns or receive a percentage or a portion of proceeds from companies in which the product or message is sexual, political or religious in nature, or from alcohol or weapon companies.

As one would guess, this is more than a little controversial. WWP relented and sent Steve Nardizzi to speak on the show. The audio is here (11/18, part 1).

He claimed that the organization "obviously supports the 2nd Amendment" and cited their cross-promotions with hunting events. However, he also reiterated that WWP doesn't engage in "co-branding" with firearms manufacturers because there's a great deal of regulation on "cause-marketing opportunities," and that the return on investment isn't lucrative enough.

That's not any less insulting.

Personally, I remain conflicted. I find their policy offensive, but I can't argue with the good work they do. I have friends who've benefited from their assistance. If I were to terminate involvement with every company that didn't support the gun culture, I'd need to go through my house and throw a lot of things out.

Tamara Needs Our Help

So, I just got off a bout of food poisoning. I'm eating again, but if feels like someone's punched my stomach. That's unpleasant.

Tamara, fellow gun blogger, high queen of Coal Creek Armory, and lady with a S&W collection that puts mine to shame, has real problems. She's been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma and needs to get work done. She doesn't have insurance, so this is coming out of her own pocket. Tamara's done a lot for the gun culture, and here's a chance to give something back in a tangible way.

There are several raffles being held to raise money, but if you want to go right to the source, hit the PayPal button on the sidebar of her page and send a donation directly.

Chris Muir also has an absolutely epic poster he's raffling off here for five bucks.

Executive Orders

There won't be any new gun control laws coming from the legislature any time in the near future. Why not? Because the President wants them. The Republicans have done a bang-up job of playing the obstructionist card the last few years, and I've little doubt they'll continue to do their best to deny him anything they can.

So, will he try to pull something "under the radar?" One of the concerns I frequently hear is that he'll resort to passing legislation through executive orders.

That's not how it works.

We don't have an exact definition of what an executive order is, nor do we know the full limits. Authority for them is attributed to Article II, Section 5, which states the President "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." To this end, executive orders are generally understood to grant the President the authority to enforce or facilitate a certain law.

But they are not used to make laws.

Four More Years

At this point, enough of the votes are in that it's safe to call it. The American people want President Obama to serve a second term.

Read that last part again. He was voted in, fair and square. There wasn't some liberal media conspiracy. There's no more elusive birth certificate silliness this time around. Simply put, the voters spoke.

If that's not good enough, and you just have to blame someone, I've got an apt candidate: the Tea Party.

Two years ago, I looked back on the wretched farce that was the 2010 midterm election and noted that the Tea Party was able to win seats. The question, however, was whether or not they could govern. The answer turns out to be a resounding no. Sure, they played it well for the fans back home by nipping at the President's heels at every turn, but let's discuss their actual achievements.

Anybody? Nope. I've got nothing.

Public perception of them was skeptical at best, especially following (what was at the time) the most expensive election in history. They set themselves up as a bunch of strident contrarians, but that only works so long. For some reason, they chose to play brinksmanship on the debt ceiling in 2011, culminating in threats of a government shutdown if they didn't get their way.

That backfired for Gingrich in 1995, and it backfired in 2011. If you were listening to anybody besides Hannity or O'Reilly, you'd have noticed the dramatic shift in public opinion to the negative. Not only had they forked the Republican party at a time it desperately needed unity, their actions left a stigma on the party as a whole.

This wasn't helped by the fact that their pet Presidential candidates were far-right hyper-religious types guaranteed to intimidate moderates and independents. By the time Romney stepped through the dust cloud to gain the nomination, it was obvious that even his own party wasn't too keen on him as a candidate.

All they had to do was not screw up, but they couldn't even manage that. So here we are: four more years of gridlock.

Indifference

I voted just a couple of hours ago. When I walked through the door, I singlehandedly doubled the turnout at that time. All but two of the cars in the parking lot belonged to the people working the polls.

Despite what Peggy Noonan and Dick Morris claim, I don't see Republicans showing any more enthusiasm than they did in 2008, and if there's one thing that will bolster an incumbent's chances, it's the other side not showing up.

I can't say I've got high hopes for tonight.

Purgation

The Catholics have guilt, and the Jews have relentless self-examination. What's left for the modern Protestant stranded in plush suburbia?

The blues? Heck no. White folks (Stevie Ray Vaughn excepted) don't get that at all. Scientology? Too expensive. Calvinism? Too retro. Those Robert Bly campouts? Really creepy.

If a life of quiet desperation seems a bit too literate and everybody's tired of hearing about your sundry neuroses, what's left to do? Turn that desire for self-flagellation inwards and express it in awkward and possibly dangerous ways!

This is not an advisable way to go about it. Pride may goeth before the fall, but it doesn't make a very good bullseye. Jealosy and selfishness quite literally dodged the bullet, and despite making two appearances, laziness seems to have pretty good survival skills in today's guilt- and bullet-ridden society. Unfortunately, the glory of God got winged pretty good at the bottom there.

I'm not sure what sort of proselytization was being attempted here, but it's more than a bit unsettling in both concept and execution. Let's hope tonight's shooters find a more peaceful way of working out their inner demons.

(Whether or not Jews can get the blues in the standard manner is a matter for debate, but they do seem to get the general idea.)

The Softer Name of Revenue

Cook County Illinois recently debated the idea of a 1¢ tax per bullet on ammunition. The proposal failed, but it's going to be replaced with a $25 "transfer" fee on all firearms sold within the county.

It's offensive and futile, and it's unlikely to serve its intended purpose. The Illinois State Rifle Association is claiming that the funds will actually be funneled to anti-gun groups, though no attribution is given to the claim.

It's a sneaky brand of gun control, and the constitutionality of the measure is questionable at best, and the law might find Chicago in court yet again on 2nd Amendment grounds. In the McDonald case, the Supreme Court referred to the right to keep and bear arms as "fundamental," and as such, it should be protected under the same scrutiny as freedom of the press.

In the end, the only people affected by this tax will be gun stores in Cook County, as buyers will likely choose to purchase guns elsewhere in order to avoid the tax.

(Pictured above is a 1903 Springfield Krag-Jørgensen in .30 Gov't. Yes, I'm having an inordinate amount of fun with Instagram.)

Stormy Weather

So, I broke down and bought a smartphone. Now I don't have to go all the way across the room for internet. What a marvelous future we occupy!

The little blinky squawkbox has all sorts of applications, some of which are truly novel. Google Sky Map is a great deal of fun, and Instagram makes me look somewhat competent with a camera. It comes in handy for capturing moments like this, when Maia decides that the sudden blustery wind doesn't meet with her approval.

The Heartbreak of Bullet Setback

Take a good look, kids. Don't flinch. Don't avert your eyes. Bullet setback is real, and it could be happening in your very own neighborhood as we speak.

"Impossible!" you say. "My community is free of hippies and bullet setback! It could never touch our halcyon lives of quiet desperation!"

You'd be wrong. Dead gun wrong. See Timmy with his new 1911? Look how shiny it is! A wholesome, all-American boy with his all-American gun! But watch as Timmy loads up a magazine and slaps it into the pistol to "function test" it. He dry-cycles the ammunition by racking the slide to chamber and eject each round. Sure, it looks "cool," but it's a tragedy waiting to happen.

The sad truth is, Timmy's in bed with Communism. The Reds want him to have a negligent discharge! If they can't succeed at that, they'll make darned sure he has a case-head blowout at the range, just like the one pictured above.

What Uncle Joe Stalin knows is that the bullet gets pushed slightly into the case each time it hits the feed ramp. Setback can also occur with folks who constantly unload and reload the top two rounds of their carry ammunition.

"Well, Vladimir's not getting to me!" you might say. "I'll get one of them newfangly plastic pistols!" Wrong again! You're no safer than you are from the lead paint in dear old mom's kitchen.

As the bullet gets pushed further into the case, pressures increase, and that's got to go somewhere. It can happen with any gun. The combination of hollowpoints and the 1911 seems to be a good recipe for this, but I've seen it happen with most major service calibers and guns.

Now, there are other causes, such as improper seating or crimping, but most of the issues I see are from the two aforementioned practices. Dry-cycling ammunition doesn't prove any sort of functionality (or lack thereof) that won't become apparent in live fire. All it does is damage the ammunition, and possibly the gun.

And that's just what the Bolsheviks want.

Yep, He Went There

In tonight's debate, the President was asked point-blank if he'd support a ban on "assault weapons." His answer was an unequivocable yes. It's a bit ironic, since he acknowledged that most of the violence in his hometown was carried out with "cheap handguns" rather than AK-47's.

This places him on shaky rhetorical ground when he claims to support the 2nd Amendment, but the shocking thing is that Governor Romney implied that he'd support it if it "provided opportunities for both [sides] that both wanted." Just like they did in 1993.

Flaunting that NRA endorsement a bit, aren't we Mitt?

I'm not worried about such a thing happening, as the votes aren't there in Congress. Even if the idea had support, everybody remembers the political fallout from 1994. What gets me is that both men were either so overconfident or so utterly...I don't know, what's the opposite of smart?

ETA: It's interesting that Romney brought up the Fast & Furious debacle, which both Crowley and the President conveniently sidestepped discussing. Mittens also thinks machine guns are illegal, when in fact they're simply taxed and regulated by the NFA.

The actual quotes follow.

Ah, Saturdays.

The good: I took home a 3" S&W 66, a gun I've long been seeking.



This one left the factory in 1994, the same year Tip O'Neil died, alternative rock pretty much fell apart, and a big comet smacked into Jupiter. The records are inconsistent, but it doesn't appear many of this iteration were made, making it an even rarer example of an already elusive pistol.

The 3" K-Frames are one of the most versatile and effective carry guns out there. I've waxed poetic on the virtues of the fixed-sight versions before, but a 3" model with target sights is like having a Maserati with the engine output rated in unicorn power.

Yeah. It's that cool.

The weird: we had an odd situation caused by incompetent handloads. It appears that Uncle Joe Bob mixed alcohol, distraction, and a progressive press. The progeny of his folly was a round of .38 Special containing no powder but two bullets.

(What do we even call that particular species of stupid?)

Yep. It was a primed casing with two unjacketed lead bullets stacked atop each other. Thank goodness there wasn't powder, or the shooter would have suffered serious injury.



As it was, the primer ignited with enough force to ram the rearmost bullet into the one in front. The two bullets fused into a single projectile, which then jammed itself between the cylinder face and forcing cone tighter than Marlin Brando in the window seat on a US Air flight. The cylinder was locked shut, and the firing pin was stuck in the primer. Good times.

The gunsmith cleared it by dropping a cleaning rod down the barrel and hammering the bullets back into the casing. Once the weapon was cleared, we realized what had happened. The gun was Ruger's lightweight LCR model, which showed no apparent damage from the mishap.

We have a box at work labelled "Congratulations: You Have Earned a Spot in the 'WTF' Box" for the unfortunate, mangled products of hapless reloading, and this one is certainly the centerpiece of that.

Fast & Furious: Denouement

The Office of the Inspector General has released its findings on the Fast & Furious debacle. The short version? Everybody short of Attorney General Eric Holder has egg on the face. The report finds that Holder himself was unaware of the operation until February of 2011.

In the wake of the report, former Acting Director Kenneth Melson announced his retirement, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein resigned. Aside from the ATF Phoenix division staff, he seems to bear the brunt of the investigation's ire.

And what of Holder? He fired back today about the "baseless accusations" leading to his contempt charge from Congress, and in the eyes of the public, he's right. The Democrats claimed that Issa's investigation was a partisan witch-hunt, and this report validates that assertion.

The report calls for a wide swath of disciplinary action, though I'm not expecting much. To this day, not a single government agent has been held responsible for Brian Terry's death.

I have the whole thing mirrored here [4Mb pdf]. Their findings start on page 440, and I've condensed them below.

Borderlands 2

It's out, and it's good.

Little of Borderlands 2 will come as a surprise to those who played the first. The graphics and environments are slightly improved, but they aren't a departure. The interface is simplified, particularly regarding inventory management, and the mini-map is a welcome addition. Other than that, it's Borderlands, except it's Borderlands 2.

That's in no way a bad thing. The original game was phenomenal, but it could have used a few tweaks, which is what we've got here. There's more variety in weapons and locations, and the new classes are more versatile, particularly in weapon choice (my siren is a heck of a sniper). Co-op matchmaking is smoother, and while there's an interface for trading guns between players, it's a bit clunky.

If there's a plot to speak of, I haven't really found much of it. The Hyperion corporation has taken over Pandora, and they're mining the planet for Eridium. I know this because of the occasional earthquake, and the fact that CEO Handsome Jack chimes in with some sarcastic banter about his diamond-studded pony from time to time.

Like I said, this is Borderlands. Not Mass Effect. Not Chrono Trigger. This is a game about the giddy nihilism of blowing up ugly things with gloriously bizarre weapons so you can be rewarded with even more gloriously bizarre weapons to blow up even more ludicrous ugly things.

At that, it excels.

(Image courtesy of FPSGeneral)

Full of Derp

Maia, showing her distinctive coloring and dignified bearing.

The Big Stupid, Part II

I would think the Democrats are smart enough to leave gun control alone by now. I'd think that, but apparently, I'd be wrong. They released their 2012 platform [pdf] today, and it includes this happy little chestnut:

We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans’ Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation. We understand the terrible consequences of gun violence; it serves as a reminder that life is fragile, and our time here is limited and precious. We believe in an honest, open national conversation about firearms. We can focus on effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system, and we can work together to enact commonsense improvements – like reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole – so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few.  [p. 18]

Well, derp. In case "reasonable regulation" and "gun show loophole" sound familiar, they're straight out of the Brady Campaign's post-Heller Handbook of Strategic Backpedaling in the Case of Epic Fail and Grasping at What Straws May Remain.

Speaking of Democrat weirdness, I had an odd moment of cognitive dissonance during Biden's speech when the crowd started chanting "four more years!" Where had I heard that before?

Oh, right--1972. Truly bizarre.

How Not to Win, Part II

After being detained for strolling around a suburban park with a Draco pistol, Leonard Embody tried suing the officers who detained him. If you're not familiar with his story, I've got background here. In short, and as usual, he lost.

He then appealed to the 6th Circuit, who were none too sympathetic [pdf].

For his troubles, Embody has done something rare: He has taken a position on the Second and Fourth Amendment that unites the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Second Amendment Foundation. Both organizations think that the park ranger permissibly disarmed and detained Leonard Embody that day, notwithstanding his rights to possess the gun. So do we.

Just savor the irony, folks.

In short, the Court found that Embody got exactly what he was seeking, just not the outcome for which he'd hoped.

Having worked hard to appear suspicious in an armed-and-loaded visit to the park, Embody cannot cry foul after park rangers, to say nothing of passers-by, took the bait.

Fortunately, they saw no need to comment much on the 2nd Amendment one way or another, finding only that,

No court has held that the Second Amendment encompasses a right to bear arms within state parks. (...) Such a right may or may not exist, but the critical point for our purposes [emphasis mine] is that it has not been established—clearly or otherwise at this point.

So, at least it's not hurting us. That's some consolation.

An Asteroid, Mr. President

President Obama opened himself up for questions on Reddit today. The few answers he gave were safe and uncontroversial human-interest fodder: the White House recipe for beer, who watches the dog, and his favorite Bulls player. The only real question of merit came regarding the space program.

He name-checked Neil Armstrong as "a reminder of the inspiration and wonder that our space program has provided in the past." What he failed to note was that one of Armstrong's rare public statements was a letter to the administration castigating the President for gutting the same space program.

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle program, the Constellation project was to be our next means of achieving low-earth orbit. That was cut from the budget, and if we want a ride into space at the moment, we've got to book it with the Russians.

That's right: we have to pay the Russians to get us into space. And for what? As Armstrong points out, a seat on the Soyuz runs $50 million, and we already had $10 billion in Constellation when it was canned. Let's also not forget the abrupt upswing in unemployment that followed on the Space Coast as a result.

If this is how he treats things that provide us with inspiration and wonder, I'd hate to see how he'll treat things that don't.

 

Dante, 1997-2012

Dante was my best friend for fifteen years. This was the last picture I took of him, a day before I had to have him put to sleep. I gave him the best life I could, and he repaid me with unconditional love.

He meant to stick with me, even though he was hurting. I was reluctant to let him go, because I was too afraid to lose him. He was brave while I was selfish.

He'd never have thought that, though. He simply loved me with all his heart, and that's a gift we all too often take for granted.

I watched him grow from an ebullient and bright puppy to a wise old man, and he was a reassuring constant in my life, no matter what happened. Now it aches to walk through a room that's all too empty without him.

Dogs love unconditionally, and I do believe they have souls.  Martin Luther once wrote,

In Paradise there was complete harmony between man and animals; one day again that harmony will be restored and all creation will be made anew.

I'll see him again some day. In the meantime, he's got Luna to keep him company.

I'll miss you, kiddo.

Fixing Thunderbird's Link Issues

I recently noticed that clicking on links in Thunderbird fails to open a browser window. It worked a few days ago, so I'm guessing a recent update must have had something to do with it.

There are bug reports, and there are quite a few workarounds, some of which are complex and none of which are elegant.

Nor are they necessary. The problem is caused by Thunderbird's network protocol handlers.  In 13.0.1, the warn-external entries are all set to false for some reason. Go into Preferences, then click on the Advanced tab. Click on the "Config Editor" button and confirm the dire warning.



Search for the phrase "handler.warn," and change the values referencing http, https, and ftp to "true" by double-clicking.

Close the windows. Next time you click on a link, Thunderbird will ask you to choose a browser, and you'll be set.

I've no idea why it's going out the door that way, but at least it's an easy fix.

Win Some, Lose Some

The Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) today. Let's do act like adults and call it by its proper name, rather than "Obamacare."

Do I agree with Roberts' decision? No, but here we are. Reaching back to 1895, he finds that

The elementary rule is that every reasonable construction must be resorted to in order to save a statute from unconstitutionality.

So, he went looking for a reason to uphold the individual mandate. In the end, he found it justified by virtue of being a tax, rather than doing so through a tortured reading of the Commerce Clause. We would have been far worse off if he'd found his authority there.

If the Republicans mean that stuff they're pounding their chests about (and if their supporters can be troubled to show up at the polls this November), it's a bump in the road in any case. Part of me wonders if punting this back to Congress wasn't Roberts' intent in the first place. If the PPACA gets pruned or repealed in 2013, this may not be such a big win as its supporters think.

The whole hubbub drowned out Eric Holder's contempt hearing. The House found him in criminal contempt by a vote of 255-67, and of civil contempt by a margin of 258-95. That didn't include Nancy Pelosi or the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who did their best James Brown cape-over-the-shoulder routine and staged a walkout.

Feels good, doesn't it? I suppose. But what does it really do? We're in murky waters, since this is somewhat unprecedented. The US Attorney could prosecute Holder, but he's got discretion, and with the administration already having circled the wagons, I don't see that happening. We have no idea how long it would take to pursue the case in civil court. We still don't have the documents, and there's no way to compel their delivery in the near future.

So, all in all, we've been treated to a grotesque bit of political theater and little more. The contempt action fails to hold anyone accountable, and it fails to bring justice to the family of Brian Terry or the innumerable Mexican victims of Fast & Furious. The PPACA stands for now, but may be trounced in the near future.

At the very least, I hope people were entertained.

Wallet Holsters

Somebody at the local gun shows has been selling these things, and it could create a potential problem for the unwary buyer. You see, that's not an ordinary pocket holster. Thanks to the National Firearms Act of 1934, it's been imbued with special powers necessitating registration and taxation.

What makes it different? It's designed so that the gun can be fired without removing it from the holster. As such, it falls under the same restrictions as cane guns, Stinger pens, and the infamous H&K MP5 briefcase. Walking around with your gun in one of these is treated with the same gravity as owning an unregistered machine gun.

I'm not being snarky here. True, you've known me to be facetious in the past. It's a personality quirk of mine, but I am not being a snickerpuss here.

Tactical Operator of the Day

Ah, YouTube: a veritable cornucopia of questionable gun advice. Today's example is MrSurplusnut. See if you can make it all the way through without cringing.



He likes the word "scenario," and he really likes his CCW badge. By the two-minute mark, I lost count of the number of times he swept the camera with his finger on the trigger of a loaded gun.

Frowny Face for Holder

The 2013 budget for the Department of Justice is up for review. During deliberations, Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz attached House Amendment 1068. The text of the amendment sounds like CSPAN on Valium:

An amendment to prohibit the use of funds used in contravention of paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 1001(a) of title 18, United State Code.

The code section in question is this,

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years

The short version? The DOJ can't use taxpayer funds to lie to Congress.

Yeah, I know. It doesn't really have teeth, but that's not the point.

The point is that it passed 381-41, with 142 Democrats (77.6%) voting in favor. It's going to be hard to dismiss the Fast & Furious hearings as petty partisan bickering now.

(The title comes from a statement by Rep. Farenthold, who complained about the lack of accountability or action within Justice.)

Holder Contempt Charge: Now It's Official

Sharyl Attkisson reports that the draft of a contempt citation naming Eric Holder is being circulated to members of the House Oversight Committee today. The citation addresses the Attorney General's lack of cooperation in the investigation of Fast & Furious.

Resolved, That Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.

Resolved, That pursuant to 2 U.S.C. §§ 192 and 194, the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall certify the report of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, detailing the refusal of Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, to produce documents to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as directed by subpoena, to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, to the end that Mr. Holder be proceeded against in the manner and form provided by law.

Resolved, That the Speaker of the House shall otherwise take all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena.

I've got the actual text here [pdf], and it's a bit of a read. I'm not sure it'll lead to anything in terms of the investigation, but the timing suggests that it's more about election politics. We've got a Presidential candidate who's (belatedly) cozying up to the NRA, and something like this will come in handy in the upcoming debates.

What bothers me is that it isn't justice.

Anenon: The Inner Hue

Sometimes music doesn't have to do anything. It just has to be there. This record is a good example.

It's not that nothing happens, but this album is more a collection of still pictures than a film in motion: in this case, a blurred sequence of sepia tones and sunbleached photographs frayed and wrinkled at the edges. Brian Simon utilizes a narrow pallette of saxophone, Rhodes piano, and a Roland 909 (ah, respecting the classics!). Sometimes limitations are the best creative spur, and that's well apparent here.

Possible points of triangulation might be Helios and the MFA but more than anything, the record feels like the first time I heard My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. It's gauzy and disorienting, but with a sense of rhythm that keeps things grounded to some extent. Simon's saxophone is rarely distinguishable, being relegated to providing texture more than melody. Though half the tracks lack percussion, the pulse is always just there under the surface.

It appears that there are no plans for a CD pressing, but the record is available in digital form from Boomkat.

How Erik Got His Gnome Back

I recently purchased one of the Acer Aspire notebooks. It's small enough that I don't feel like Sisyphus dragging a rock up the mountain, but large enough to actually be useful. I got it home, wiped Windows, and set about installing Ubuntu 10.04 on it.

I like 10.04. It's still got the Gnome 2 environment, which I find to be a great balance between usability and attractiveness, and I've absolutely no need to upgrade. However, the Aspire uses a newer Atheros AR9485 wireless card, and it's not supported under the 2.6.32 kernel.

Crap. That means upgrading to 3.0. That means upgrading to Ubuntu 11 and losing Gnome 2 for the mess that is Unity. Do let's start gnashing teeth and listening to Elliot Smith records now.

I did scads of research, and there is simply no way to get Gnome 2 working under Ubuntu 11. There's a fallback configuration for Gnome 3 that looks a bit similar, but it's not the same. The panel is stubbornly resistant to customization, and GTK2 themes don't work. That's irksome, because the Clearlooks engine was one of the cleanest and most attractive interface setups since Motif.

Then I came across references to Mint Linux. Mint is a fork of Ubuntu, but the developers appear to hate the whole Gnome 3 atrocity as much as I do. The difference is that they actually went and did something about it.

Revisionism

It's already begun. Mitt Romney showed up at the NRA convention Friday and gave a keynote address that boiled down to "Obama's going to take your guns, but I'm the guy who's going to fight for you right to keep them!"

Nice try, Mitt, but some of us have long memories. We remember who supported the original Assault Weapons Ban in 1993, and we haven't forgotten who signed off on a permanent extension of Massachusetts' state-level equivalent in 2004. Signing up for an NRA life membership two years later doesn't erase that.

Frankly, I don't expect the guy to push for the 2nd Amendment if he gets elected. I don't think we can even expect a wizened little shove. The best we'll get is that he stays out of the way of the progress we're making.

Is the situation ideal? Nope. But politics isn't about the ideal; it's about what's practical and achievable. This is something you just can't beat into the Ron Paul zealots. We take the best candidate who has a chance of winning, and this time around, it's Mitt Romney.

If he doesn't screw up too badly, we've got another few years with a sympathetic legislature and Supreme Court, and that's where the gains are to be made.

In happier news, check this out:



9mm Hornady Critical Defense loadings against pork ribs. Tell me it's no good now, Captain Tactical! While not the least bit scientific, I'm going to claim that this completely contradicts those silly Swiss goat shooting tests and declare that the .45 is just for old coots with compensation issues.

Like That When I Got Here

A guy came into work the other day and regaled me with his elaborate plans to build a flamethrower that shoots ball bearings. This is dedicated to him.

Like That When I Got Here  (01:19)

Decision in Woollard v. Sheridan

The Maryland District Court has just handed down a decision [pdf] in the Woollard case granting the plaintiff summary judgement. You can catch up on the background here. The meat of the decision is that Maryland's standard for issuance of carry permits is too strict and arbitrary to pass constitutional muster.

From the opinion:

The Court finds that Maryland’s requirement of a “good and substantial reason” for issuance of a handgun permit is insufficiently tailored to the State’s interest in public safety and crime prevention. The law impermissibly infringes the right to keep and bear arms, guaranteed by the Second Amendment.

Judge Legg maintains that the right to carry outside the home is only covered by intermediate scrutiny, but this is a step forward.

At bottom, this case rests on a simple proposition: If the Government wishes to burden a right guaranteed by the Constitution, it may do so provided that it can show a satisfactory justification and a sufficiently adapted method. The showing, however, is always the Government‘s to make. A citizen may not be required to offer a "good and substantial reason"why he should be permitted to exercise his rights. The right‘s existence is all the reason he needs. [p. 20]

This is the first opinion to phrase the idea in such clear and forceful language.

Think Blue, Count Two

Space sometimes commands strange tools to its uses.

Think Blue, Count Two (01:34)

False Flags and Cheap Shots

I was having a good day. I was rocking out to Hilary Hahn's phenomenal recording of Ives' violin sonatas, until I got word that a profile had been established for me at this site.

That's odd. I've never heard of that site, and I found that "claiming" my profile would require a paid membership. Well, that's pretty dishonest and underhanded.

So, who are these people? They don't seem too keen on making friends. In fact, they spend a great sum of pixels lambasting other established gun bloggers, and they've trolled more than a few gun forums. A whois query shows that the ownership and hosting details are obfuscated, and the only contact information is a phone number out of Denmark. I can tell from the grammar on the site that there are no Danes running it.

Then someone found a bit of a serendipitous wrinkle in their WordPress code.  Type in some garbage after the URL, and Smoke and Mirrors directs to the website of the Violence Policy Center.

We call those oopsies.

I was wondering where Josh Sugarmann was spending all that money he gets from the Joyce Foundation, since it's not as if his little group is very active in politics these days. I guess he's got to do something to keep busy, but this is just pathetic.

And frankly, it's encouraging to see that the opposition has to stoop to things like this.

Persistent Ringdown

Low-rent phase music made affordable.

Persistent Ringdown  (01:49)

New President for the Brady Campaign

Since Paul Helmke stepped down last year, Dennis Henigan has been serving as active president. Today, the Brady Campaign announced that Daniel Gross would be taking the reins.

Gross was formerly the director of the Center to Prevent Youth Violence. I can't find much about their funding. They were previously known as PAX, who received a $200,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation in 2004, but the trail appears to stop there.

Given that the Brady Campaign's budget has fallen into the four-digit range, I'm curious as to whether this guy is bringing in further funding, as they can't be paying him much.

Or, it might just be a part-time gig for him to build his resume.

Fast and Furious: Another Round

Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Oversight Committee again today. As with his previous appearances, we were treated to a litany of evasions and excuses. Long story short:  he doesn't know what's going on in his department, and he claims to have had no knowledge of any gunwalking operations prior to the death of Brian Terry.

It's been over a year since he promised an internal investigation, and he has yet to provide any explanation or any proof of action. Representative Labrador pointed out that Holder continues to show up for Congressional hearings unprepared, and that he seems oblivious to happenings at Justice. Representative Farenthold took it a step further, asking Holder, "knowing what you know, do you think you're qualified to lead the Department of Justice?"

Holder's response? "If you're going to ask me to resign (...) you've asked the wrong question."

I don't think we are.

Fast and Furious: Cummings Pushes Back

Attorney General Holder gets another chance to testify to the House Oversight Committee Thursday morning.  Just in time, Representative Elijah Cummings has released a report [pdf] in which he claims to clear the White House and Department of Justice of any complicity in this matter.  Of course, if they were already clear, then why is this unsolicited "report" even necessary?

He doesn't go so far as to claim ignorance, only that,

[t]he Committee has obtained no evidence that Operation Fast and Furious was a politically-motivated operation conceived and directed by high-level Obama Administration political appointees at the Department of Justice.

Instead, Cummings settles for declaring that the administration did not conceive or direct Fast and Furious.  He seems to think that justification hinges on such semantic differences.

Entitled "Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona," the report tries to lump Fast and Furious in with prior such schemes as Wide Receiver ("see?  George Bush did it, too!"), and it attempts to portray the entire situation as something isolated to rogue elements in the Phoenix field division.

Of course, this flies in the face of facts.  US Attorney Dennis Burke has resigned after being caught providing false claims to his superiors, and newly available documentation [pdf] from NPR shows that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson still approved of the operation's details as of February of 2011.

Allais Loop

A glitch in cubic interpolation. Sometimes the most novel results are the least expected.

Allais Loop  (01:03)

After the Blackout

I'm uncertain how effective the Wikipedia blackout truly was. Most people who've mentioned it to me saw it as a massive inconvenience and little more. That's a shame, because a some lessons are being lost there.

1. SOPA is a bad bill, and one with potentially dire consequences for the entire internet.


2. At least one major pillar of the online community was willing to step up to protest it.


3. Most people don't care and would rather not be bothered. They had to endure 24 hours being deprived of a resource for which they pay nothing, and for which there are alternatives.

I hope just a small fraction of those folks will actually follow up and research the bill. If even some people choose to get active about it, all the better.

Speaking of which, those of us in Georgia really need to reconsider our choices in representation. Both Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss are cosponsors of the Senate version. Both men also voted for S. 1867. Remember that one? Chambliss has until 2014, and Isakson until 2016, but I won't be forgetting this.

Phil Gingrey is supporting the House version, and he is up for reelection this year. I'll vote for a Democrat who respects his constituents before I will a Republican who sells them out.

It's the Economy, Stupid

The FBI reports that there were 500,000 NICS checks performed for gun purchases in the week before Christmas. That's a record, beating even the whole post-election rush. There were 129,166 checks this Black Friday, beating the previous record of 98,000 in 2008.

The media, few of whom are in touch with the gun culture, are postulating all sorts of reasons for the boom, but they're missing the real factors. I submit that this year's record numbers are more due to increased interest in the hobby and confidence in the economy than they are to paranoia, crime, or politics.

In 2009, panic buying was the order of the day. They were coming for our guns! Get 'em before the ban! Society was on the verge of collapse. People were buying guns just to buy guns. I worried that few, if any, would actually get training or take up shooting as a pastime.

I'm relieved to say I was wrong.

The character of this year's rush was completely different: happier, calmer, more informed, and more inquisitive. A much larger percentage of buyers are repeat purchasers, and they're getting guns with the enjoyment of shooting in mind. Enrollment in training courses has risen exponentially. Folks aren't yelling about politics anymore. Rather, they're getting advice on being better shooters.

What a breath of fresh air! Now, can we just get past the whole zombie thing, please?

(Incidentally, that figure is only the number of individual checks, not the actual number of firearms transferred. Multiple firearms in the same transaction only get one check. Additionally, purchasers in many states can bypass the check if they have a carry permit, so we can likely assume the real number is 30-50% higher.)