Tag: freedom

It appears that a large majority of Connecticut gun-owners are refusing to register their semi-automatic rifles, as required by that state’s new gun control law.

9:45 am

Pushback: It appears that a large majority of Connecticut gun-owners are refusing to register their semi-automatic rifles, as required by that state’s new gun control law.

Due to the new gun control bill passed in April, likely at least 20,000 individual people — possibly as many as 100,000 — are now in direct violation of the law for refusing to register their guns. As we noted above, that act is now a Class D Felony.

Mike Lawlor, “the state’s top official in criminal justice,” suggested maybe the firearms unit in Connecticut could “send them a letter.” However, he said an aggressive push to prosecute gun owners in the state is not going to happen at this point.

When the law has contempt for freedom, then the only answer is contempt for the law.

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Environmentalists register opposition to a new commercial spaceport in Florida.

10:27 am

Environmentalists register opposition to a new commercial spaceport in Florida.

Opponents of the plan to carve out about 200 acres from the 140,000-acre (57,000-hectare) Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge cite concerns over protecting the refuge’s water, seashore, plants and wildlife, which include 18 federally listed endangered species. “It’s a very pristine, natural area. It’s clear water … very unique. You don’t have that anywhere else in Florida,” said Ted Forsgren with Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, which strongly opposes the project.

The environmentalists also cite the possibility that access to the refuge will become reduced because it will be closed during launches.

These objections are bogus. The reason this refuge even exists is because of the Kennedy Space Center. When the space center was created in the 1960s Congress also set aside the area around it as a wildlife refuge. Nothing could be built there anyway because of the need to create a buffer from the rocket launchpads. In the ensuing half century the wildlife has prospered, despite the launches. And access to the refuge has always been restricted in a variety of ways because of the space center. A new commercial launch facility won’t change any of this significantly.

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At House hearings this week witness after witness recounted how the IRS harassment of conservatives continues.

10:11 am

Working for the Democratic Party: At House hearings this week witness after witness have recounted how the IRS harassment of conservatives continues.

“I want to make three primary points here today,” said Mitchell. ”First, the IRS scandal is real. It’s not pretend, it’s real. Number two, the IRS scandal is not just a bone-headed bunch of bureaucrats in some remote office contrary to what the President of the United States told the American People on Sunday. And, number 3, the IRS scandal is not over. It is continuing to this day. And the Department of Justice Investigation is a sham. It is a nonexistent investigation.”

The article also notes that Obama’s claim that there is not a “smidgen of corruption” about this scandal is a lie, especially since the IRS began this story by admitting it had acted improperly in targeting conservatives, and had made this admission after the then IRS head had told Congress that no improper targeting had taken place. (In other words, he lied in sworn testimony to Congress.)

More information about this week’s on-going IRS hearing in the House can be found here. I have also posted below the fold some of the testimony of Cleta Mitchell and Catherine Engelbrecht. Watch it. Their description of the government attacks on conservatives is quite horrifying.
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How the tea party cornered John Boehner on immigration.

9:48 am

How the tea party cornered John Boehner on immigration.

The issue here for me isn’t immigration reform, but how this story describes the changing of the guard in the Republican Party. The present leadership is out of touch with its membership, on a number of issues, including Obamacare, government regulation, the budget, and the federal debt. It is only a matter of time before that leadership goes away, and from this article, it will likely be sooner rather than later.

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The voters in bankrupt San Bernardino this week elected tea party-type individuals as their mayor and city council.

9:25 am

The voters in bankrupt San Bernardino this week elected tea party-type individuals as their mayor and city council, firing the pro-union old guard that had put the city in debt.

Tuesday’s results follow elections in November, when the balance of power in San Bernardino’s seven-member council shifted dramatically away from an old guard reluctant to take on unions and reduce pension obligations. After Tuesday night, six of seven council members are now on record as saying they want to explore reducing San Bernardino’s pensions, along with Davis, the new mayor, and a new city attorney, Gary Saenz.

This is good news, as it is further proof that elections matter and that the citizenry can make a difference, if it simply pays attention and votes accordingly.

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An FBI agent mistakenly fills out the wrong box so that an innocent person is put on the no-fly list, she sues, and the federal government fights her for almost a decade in court proceedings that the government demands must be held in secret.

9:16 am

An FBI agent mistakenly fills out the wrong box so that an innocent person is put on the no-fly list, she sues, and the federal government fights her for almost a decade in court proceedings that the government demands must be held in secret.

To translate, the FBI and the federal government did everything it could to cover up its bureaucratic bungle, not caring that it might destroy an innocent person.

Obviously, it therefore makes perfect sense to give the federal government as much power as we can, to regulate our lives in every way possible. They would never do this kind of idiocy in other areas, would they?

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What life has been like for one engineer who works at SpaceX.

10:27 am

What life has been like for one engineer who works at SpaceX.

Key quote:

According to Pearce, the best and the worst things about working for Musk are actually the same. “He doesn’t feel the need to make reasonable requests,” Pearce says. “The whole idea of SpaceX is not reasonable. The idea that a dot-com millionaire could take [US] $100 million and start a rocket company that within 13 years would be taking supplies to the International Space Station, that’s on track to take crew to the International Space Station — that’s not reasonable.”

But SpaceX did it.

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Illinois officials have ordered an eleven-year-old to close her cupcake business that was earning her $200 a month.

1:44 pm

We’re here to help you: Illinois officials have ordered an eleven-year-old to close her cupcake business that was earning her $200 a month.

“They called and said they were shutting us down,” said Chloe’s mother, Heather Stirling.

According to the Post-Dispatch, health officials informed the Stirlings that they would have to “buy a bakery or build her a kitchen separate from the one we have” for Chloe to continue selling cupcakes. “Obviously, we can’t do that,” Heather said. “We’ve already given her a little refrigerator to keep her things in, and her grandparents bought her a stand mixer. But a separate kitchen? Who can do that?” Chloe was charging $10 for a dozen cupcakes and $2 specialty cupcakes. “I’m saving for a bakery,” Chloe said in the piece that got her into trouble.

“The rules are the rules. It’s for the protection of the public health,” said health department spokeswoman Amy Yeager. “The guidelines apply to everyone. People will react how they choose to react. But it is our job.”

If this doesn’t illustrate why the rules are a bad idea in the first place, I don’t know what will. A free society allows for this kind of creative innovation, and also allows the possibility that maybe all cupcakes won’t be perfect.

Sadly, we don’t live in that free society any longer.

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A village government in New York is trying to take a private grocery using eminent domain in order to replace it with a municipality-owned market.

12:51 pm

Theft by government: A village government in New York is trying to take a private grocery using eminent domain in order to replace it with a municipality-owned market.

In a statement, the village said it has “been trying, without success, to engage the Whitneys in substantive discussions” about renovating for the past year. “[A]t various times they have clearly stated their inability or unwillingness to undertake the renovation requirement and despite statements to the contrary, no building plans or architectural drawings of any kind have ever been presented to the village for review,” it said.

But here’s where the story becomes particularly frustrating for Whitney: Four engineers, including two commissioned by the village, reviewed the storm damage on the market and ruled that it was not “substantial,” the store owner’s son, Scott, said. “The repairs that are required due to the flooding . . . do not appear to me to be substantial improvements as defined in the building code,” one of the village-commissioned reports reads.

Nevertheless, despite the findings in the reports, village officials continue to argue that the damage is too much for Whitney to handle. Officials also said the veteran’s submitted plans for repairs are insufficient or incomplete.

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Another law, another squelched dream

9:28 am

Surprise, surprise! Virgin Galactic space tourists could be grounded by federal regulations.

Virgin Galactic submitted an application to the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation in late August 2013, says Attenborough. The office, which goes by the acronym AST, has six months to review the application, meaning an approval may come as early as February. Industry experts, however, say that may be an overly optimistic projection. “An application will inevitably be approved, but it definitely remains uncertain exactly when it will happen,” says Dirk Gibson, an associate professor of communication at the University of New Mexico and author of multiple books on space tourism. “This is extremely dangerous and unchartered territory. It’s space travel. AST has to be very prudent,” he says. “They don’t want to endanger the space-farers or the public, and they can’t let the industry get started and then have a Titanic-like scenario that puts an end to it all in the eyes of the public.” [emphasis mine]

As I predicted ten years ago, the 2004 revision to the Commercial Space Act puts bureaucrats in charge of the exploration of space by private citizens, a fact that can have no good consequences.
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The European Space Agency has now released its first cost estimates for upgrading and replacing its Ariane 5 rocket.

8:54 am

The European Space Agency has now released its first cost estimates for upgrading and replacing its Ariane 5 rocket.

Europe needs to find about 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) to complete development of an upgrade to its current Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, which would fly in 2018 and be capable of lifting satellites weighing 11,000 kilograms into geostationary transfer orbit, European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said Jan. 17. The Ariane 5 upgrade, called Ariane 5 ME, will be on the table for ESA governments to decide, alongside the new Ariane 6 rocket, at a meeting scheduled for December in Luxembourg.

In a press briefing in Paris, Dordain said it is too early to say how much Ariane 6 will cost to develop. Government and industry estimates have ranged between 3 billion and 4 billion euros, with an inaugural flight in 2021.

As Doug Messier notes in his worthwhile analysis of these numbers, “Europe is in deep trouble.” From a customer’s perspective, these new rockets won’t fly (pun intended). The cost is too high and the development time too long. By the time they get both Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 ready for launch they will be obsolete and overpriced, when compared to the rocket’s that will already be available from their competitors.

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“If guns cause more violence, where’s the exploding crime rate?”

9:29 am

“If guns cause more violence, where’s the exploding crime rate?”

The gun control lobby has been claiming for years that the more guns in private hands, the more gun violence we’ll see; the perennial hyperventilation is given to fears of a kind of Wild West America of lawless anarchy, wherein every gun owner is prepared to shoot from the hip at the first sign of danger.

Well. Last year the Department of Justice released a report revealing that firearm homicides declined nearly 40% between 1993 and 2011, and nonfatal firearm injuries declined nearly 70% within the same time period. Every year since 2002 has seen a rise in the number of NICS background checks performed, yet in 2011 the firearm homicide rate was lower than it was in 2002; in fact, all firearm violence, both fatal and nonfatal, was lower the former year than the latter.

You cannot negotiate the facts. They are what they are.

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“I think it was a sham from the beginning.”

11:22 pm

“I think it was a sham from the beginning.”

And what might that sham be? If your first thought is of the Obama administration’s investigation into the IRS scandal, you’d be right on the money!

The Obama administration closed the investigation without interviewing any of the victims of the harassment by the IRS.

Meanwhile, the administration as well as the Democrats in Congress are working hard to codify that harassment, so that the IRS can continue to work for the Democratic Party through the 2014 election.

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Heads roll in New Jersey over traffic scandal.

9:26 am

Heads roll in New Jersey over traffic scandal.

The speed in which Christie is firing people strongly suggests to me that he did have nothing to do with the scandal, was out of the loop as he claims. Otherwise, these fired individuals would have some leverage that they could use against Christie to protect their jobs.

Also, compare the speed of Christie’s actions with the stonewalling we have seen by Obama in connection with the IRS scandal. I think the difference is illustrative.

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More than eight months after an outraged President Obama said he would get to the bottom of the IRS harassment of conservatives, we finally find out who is heading his investigation.

9:11 am

More than eight months after an outraged President Obama said he would get to the bottom of the IRS harassment of conservatives, we finally find out who is heading his investigation: a big name Democratic Party donor.

“By selecting a significant donor to President Obama to lead an investigation into inappropriate targeting of conservative groups, the Department has created a startling conflict of interest. It is unbelievable that the Department would choose such an individual to examine the federal government’s systematic targeting and harassment of organizations opposed to the President’s policies. At the very least, Ms. Bosserman’s involvement is highly inappropriate and has compromised the Administration’s investigation of the IRS,” Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday. “We request that you immediately remove Ms. Bosserman from the ongoing investigation.”

In other words, Obama and his administration are stonewalling, which strongly suggests that they had everything to do with approving and directing this harassment of their political opponents.

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Eight reasons why Chris Christie’s traffic scandal could cause big trouble in 2016.

11:52 am

Eight reasons why Chris Christie’s traffic scandal could cause big trouble in 2016.

Most people understand that politics ain’t beanbag. There’s a certain amount of rough-and-tumble, back-and-forth backbiting that’s expected from the kind of people who choose to spend their lives trying to accumulate as much power as possible. As a result, backroom maneuvering to remove some political privileges enjoyed by one’s opponent probably wouldn’t draw a second glance. But that’s not what Christie’s top aides did. They deliberately chose to target innocent civilians: moms and dads trying to get to work on time, school bus drivers trying to get children to school, first responders trying to take ill people to the hospital.

It doesn’t matter who you are: that type of behavior is inexcusable. Nobody likes the guy who intentionally abuses his power in order to indiscriminately punish people just trying to get through the day.

And this:

In the wake of the current presidential administration’s use of the IRS to terrorize its political enemies, a lot of conservatives and Republicans are just a wee bit sensitive about a politician’s willingness to abuse his power to reward his friends or punish his foes.

I don’t care what party the politician belongs to. I don’t care how good he or she is in balancing the budget (something Christie has shown himself to be very good at). If they abuse their power they are dead to me.

What frightens me now is the possibility that the choice in 2016 might be Christie and any number of corrupt Democrats.

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