Year: 2013

Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has reversed course and will allow a tough gun bill to be introduced in the Senate.

9:17 pm

Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has reversed course and will allow a tough gun bill to be introduced in the Senate.

In 2010 the NRA backed Reid in a close election because they said he had an “A” rating, always defending the right to bear arms. I thought this was a very very bad mistake, as Reid is also a very partisan liberal Democrat, which generally means you can’t trust him on any conservative issue. Lo and behold, we now learn you can’t trust him on this conservative issue.

Had the NRA put its support behind Reid’s challenger, that challenger would have had a much better chance at winning. They did not, and here we are. Thank you, NRA.

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A congressional report, issued by Republicans in the House and Senate, says that Obamacare will increase healthcare costs by 200 percent.

9:22 am

A congressional report, issued by Republicans in the House and Senate, says that Obamacare will increase healthcare costs by 200 percent.

Though the report is partisan, it is worth reading because of the depth of the analysis as well as the range of its historical research. For example:

The report notes that a number of states have already imposed requirements on health coverage and the result has been fewer choices and higher premiums. In New York, for example, a 30-year-old male paid an average of $1,200 a year in annual premiums in 1993, but one month after the state passed Obamacare-like reforms, premiums soared to $3,240. At the time Washington state passed similar reforms, 19 insurance carriers wrote policies for state residents. Within six years, only two carriers remained in the state.

I was living in New York when the state legislature passed this early version of Obamacare and can attest to truth of the above facts. Costs doubled and insurance companies fled the state, reducing competition. I even wrote about an article about it. The evidence from these state efforts illustrates the likelihood that Obamacare will do the same, nationwide.

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Curiosity is out of safe mode and will be resuming full science operations by next week.

9:02 am

Curiosity is out of safe mode and will be resuming full science operations by next week.

It is imperative that the engineers clear up these computer problems now, as communications with the rover will be limited in April because the sun will be in the way.

Transmissions from Earth to the orbiters [Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter] will be suspended while Mars and the sun are two degrees or less apart in the sky, from April 9 to 26, with restricted commanding during additional days before and after. Both orbiters will continue science observations on a reduced basis compared to usual operations. Both will receive and record data from the rovers. Odyssey will continue transmissions Earthward throughout April, although engineers anticipate some data dropouts, and the recorded data will be retransmitted later.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will go into a record-only mode on April 4. “For the entire conjunction period, we’ll just be storing data on board,” said Deputy Mission Manager Reid Thomas of JPL. He anticipates that the orbiter could have about 40 gigabits of data from its own science instruments and about 12 gigabits of data from Curiosity accumulated for sending to Earth around May 1.

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is approaching its fifth solar conjunction. Its team will send no commands between April 9 and April 26. The rover will continue science activities using a long-term set of commands to be sent beforehand.

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ILS, the company that launches the Russian Proton rocket, has lowered its prices.

9:56 am

The competition heats up: ILS, the company that launches the Russian Proton rocket, has lowered its prices.

The reason they have given is that the insurance rates to use their rocket have risen due to the three Proton rocket failures in the past two years and that they want to offset that cost for their customers. I suspect a second reason is the price pressure that the Falcon 9 is placing on them.

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After 35 years of travel, Voyager 1 has finally left the solar system.

9:38 am

After 35 years of travel, Voyager 1 has finally left the solar system.

There is still some dispute among scientists about this, but the evidence seems clear that the spacecraft has entered regions outside the influence of our solar system.

Update: Since this morning the scientists seem to be backtracking. They now claim that Voyager 1 has not left the solar system.

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Without a warrant New Jersey police raided the home of a firearms instructor, demanding the right to inventory his guns, after he posted a Facebook photo of his son holding a rifle.

2:13 pm

Without a warrant New Jersey police raided the home of a firearms instructor, demanding the right to inventory his guns, prompted by a Facebook photo he had posted of his son holding a rifle.

The family’s trouble started Saturday night when Moore received an urgent text message from his wife. The Carneys Point Police Dept. and the New Jersey Dept. of Children and Families had raided their home. Moore immediately called [his attorney] Nappen and rushed home to find officers demanding to check his guns and his gun safe. Instead, he handed the cell phone to one of the officers – so they could speak with Nappen.

“If you have a warrant, you’re coming in,” Nappen told the officers. “If you don’t, then you’re not. That’s what privacy is all about.” With his attorney on speaker phone, Moore instructed the officers to leave his home. “I was told I was being unreasonable and that I was acting suspicious because I wouldn’t open my safe,” Moore wrote on the Delaware Open Carry website. “They told me they were going to get a search warrant. I told them to go ahead.”

It seems to me that police across the nation are becoming increasingly nonchalant about violating our Fourth Amendment right, which states quite bluntly, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

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