Testing a 25,000-ft jump in preparation for an attempt at the vertical sound barrier later this year.How'd they get the picture?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
XHALO
Testing a 25,000-ft jump in preparation for an attempt at the vertical sound barrier later this year.How'd they get the picture?
Shooting At Shoplifters
Last Friday a mall security guard in Roanoke, VA fired a shot into the air to apprehend a shoplifter.
Yesterday in Montgomery County, MD a uniformed officer fired into a car in which two shoplifters were attempting to flee, and the driver was trying to hit the officer.
Yesterday in Montgomery County, MD a uniformed officer fired into a car in which two shoplifters were attempting to flee, and the driver was trying to hit the officer.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Miss Your Flight, Spend Four Days In Jail
At the Volokh Conspiracy, the Strange Case of Revell vs. Port Authority.
Passenger books flight involving a change of planes in Newark, New Jersey. (That was his first mistake right there.)
He was transporting a properly declared handgun and, in a separate, locked container, ammunition for same.
His flight was late arriving in Newark and he missed his connection. He collected his luggage and spent the night in a hotel. Ye Gods! In Newark?
The next morning he returned to the airport and attempted to check in for the next flight to his ultimate destination, Allentown, PA. He declared the unloaded firearm and was immediately arrested.
Interesting case and discussion of the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA).
Passenger books flight involving a change of planes in Newark, New Jersey. (That was his first mistake right there.)
He was transporting a properly declared handgun and, in a separate, locked container, ammunition for same.
His flight was late arriving in Newark and he missed his connection. He collected his luggage and spent the night in a hotel. Ye Gods! In Newark?
The next morning he returned to the airport and attempted to check in for the next flight to his ultimate destination, Allentown, PA. He declared the unloaded firearm and was immediately arrested.
Interesting case and discussion of the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA).
Monday, March 29, 2010
NYPD Finds Huge Weapons, Drug Cache
Looks like a collection of old hunting rifles and shotguns, some of them older than I am. Neighbors told reporters that the guns were inherited from the old man's grandfather and uncle.The drugs? Paxil, Xanax and so forth; the "suspects" had prescriptions for them.
Typical New York City hysteria. I wonder, what was the basis for the search warrant? Might be an interesting test case if all of the residents have clean criminal records.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fast Food Makes Us Impatient, Study Suggests
Marvelous headline, which unwittingly illustrates, in just seven words, the dichotomy between cause and effect. This is an actual scientific study from the University of Toronto.
The researchers are implying that something in fast food makes us impatient: trans fat, sugar, red meat, hormones, genetically modified veggies, or some combination.
It seems never to have occurred to the researchers that people who are already impatient might prefer fast food because it is, well, fast. That explanation fits the data just as well, and is considerably more plausible.
The headline should read, "Impatient People Prefer Fast Food", but that's an even more obvious tautology, and won't get you published.
The researchers are implying that something in fast food makes us impatient: trans fat, sugar, red meat, hormones, genetically modified veggies, or some combination.
It seems never to have occurred to the researchers that people who are already impatient might prefer fast food because it is, well, fast. That explanation fits the data just as well, and is considerably more plausible.
The headline should read, "Impatient People Prefer Fast Food", but that's an even more obvious tautology, and won't get you published.
U.S. Healthcare Reform Is Boon For India Outsourcing Companies
The bulge in administrative work may look like a nightmare to American insurance firms and government employees. But to outsourcing executives here in India, it’s heaven-sent. A number of Indian companies are already anticipating an increase in workload thanks to Obama's healthcare law.
The addition of 32 million insured Americans is “very significant” for Indian outsourcers, says Ananda Mukerji, chief executive officer of Firstsource Solutions in Mumbai. Companies like his will see “increased opportunities” as US health insurers and hospitals scramble to reorganize to comply with the new law, he wrote in an email to the Monitor.
This extra work will include processing new enrollments, organizing bigger member databases, processing more claims, providing more support services, and managing more revenue, he says.
Calfornia Ballot Initiative To Legalize Marijuana
"We spend so much time, our police do, chasing around these nonviolent drug offenders, we don't have time anymore to protect our people from murders and child molesters," said Jack Cole, president of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group that plans to champion the California proposal between now and the election.
The initiative, also known as the "Tax Cannabis Act," received enough signatures this week to qualify for the November ballot. If it is approved, California would become the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use by adults. The measure would also give local governments the authority to regulate and tax pot sales.
I'll never touch the stuff, but this is a step in the right direction. And I don't know how they can tax something that you can grow in you own backyard, but still...
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Interesting Gun Case
In the Second Circuit. In Connecticut, a man named Peter Kuck applied for renewal of his carry permit. The Dept. of Public Safety phoned him and told him that he would have to provide proof of citizenship, because permits are not available to non-citizens. Kuck objected, since he had already documented his citizenship back in 1987 when he first obtained his CCW. The DPS denied his renewal and Kuck filed an appeal with the Board of Firearm Permit Examiners. The Board scheduled Kuck's hearing for eighteen months hence. Kuck sued.
The Board told the Court that their extremely heavy workload required such lengthy delays.
Here's the kicker: Kuck was a member of the BFPE and had access to their records. He showed the Court that in a single year, the Board had held only 40 appeal hearings; that's fewer than four a month, hardly a "heavy workload". In the same period, the Board "mooted" 249 appeals; that is, they made the applicant wait for 14-20 months, then quietly approved the application on the eve of the hearing. The Court found that this was consistent with an effort to use bureaucratic delays to deny "due process".
Interesting metric for use against similar regimes (NYC, DC, Chicago, etc.) in the future!
The Volokh Conspiracy, via Of Arms And The Law.
[Update:] One commenter adds: "The Second Circuit covers New York State and its arbitrary, discriminatory, expensive and burdensome pistol licensing scheme. After McDonald comes through, NY’s pistol licensing is in trouble!"
[Update] I should also point out that this decision is limited to a procedural question: now the suit may move forward and be heard on its merits. And another commenter points out, if the state can require proof of citizenship each time you renew your CCW license, can they also require proof of citizenship each time you vote? Hmmmm!
The Board told the Court that their extremely heavy workload required such lengthy delays.
Here's the kicker: Kuck was a member of the BFPE and had access to their records. He showed the Court that in a single year, the Board had held only 40 appeal hearings; that's fewer than four a month, hardly a "heavy workload". In the same period, the Board "mooted" 249 appeals; that is, they made the applicant wait for 14-20 months, then quietly approved the application on the eve of the hearing. The Court found that this was consistent with an effort to use bureaucratic delays to deny "due process".
Interesting metric for use against similar regimes (NYC, DC, Chicago, etc.) in the future!
The Volokh Conspiracy, via Of Arms And The Law.
[Update:] One commenter adds: "The Second Circuit covers New York State and its arbitrary, discriminatory, expensive and burdensome pistol licensing scheme. After McDonald comes through, NY’s pistol licensing is in trouble!"
[Update] I should also point out that this decision is limited to a procedural question: now the suit may move forward and be heard on its merits. And another commenter points out, if the state can require proof of citizenship each time you renew your CCW license, can they also require proof of citizenship each time you vote? Hmmmm!
Pew Poll Finds Increased Support For Gun Rights
The figures for Republicans and Democrats haven't changed much, but there has been a large change in Independents.A year ago, Independents were equally divided 48% to 45% in favor of gun rights, but that 3% gap has grown to 12 percent (53-to-41) in just one year.
Also, note that the overall approval rate for gun ownership is the highest that the Pew Poll has recorded in 17 years of polling on this question.
h/t Snowflakes In Hell.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
"Shall-Purchase"
If health care is now a "right", and the federal government can compel Americans to buy health insurance, can they also pass a law to compel us to buy guns?
Record Numbers Now Licensed To Pack Heat
Surprisingly even-handed article from MSNBC. Excerpt:
Be sure to hit the poll! So far the results have nearly 80% saying they "felt very safe" knowing that people around them might be CCW-holders.
h/t Maddened Fowl.
In the 1980s and ’90s, as the concealed-carry movement gained steam, Americans were killed by others with guns at the rate of about 5.66 per 100,000 population. In this decade, the rate has fallen to just over 4.07 per 100,000, a 28 percent drop. The decline follows a fivefold increase in the number of “shall-issue” and unrestricted concealed-carry states from 1986 to 2006.
Be sure to hit the poll! So far the results have nearly 80% saying they "felt very safe" knowing that people around them might be CCW-holders.
h/t Maddened Fowl.
The Bronze Age
Well, perhaps not exactly the Bronze Age.I'm reading an archaeological book on Alexander The Great, and on page 103 is this unusual bronze plaque, now in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
OK, but one wonders, was this made from life? And what is that funny three-cornered hat?
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Surface Of Mars
NASA released this synthetic image made from a stereoscopic pair of terrain maps:
The perspective on the vertical axis has been "stretched" three-fold to show detail. Below is the "unstretched" version:
Still, way cool, no?
The perspective on the vertical axis has been "stretched" three-fold to show detail. Below is the "unstretched" version:
Still, way cool, no?
The 219
I don't see the passage of the HCR bill as a victory for Obama as much as a victory for the Boston-New York-San Francisco Axis of the Democratic Party. They would like to govern based on social engineering statistics: life expectancy, infant mortality, cancer survival rates, violent crime rates, etc. And freedom be damned.
“Interstate Commerce? What does that mean when people are sick?”
The federal courts have long held that insurance is a state matter and not covered by the federal power to regulate interstate commerce, because no physical product actually changes hands. Although after Raich vs. Gonzales, it seems that the feds can now use “interstate commerce” to do anything they damned well please. Angel Raich lost her appeal because the Justice Dept. argued successfully that the six marijuana plants that she grew on her back porch affected the interstate price of marijuana; even though they admitted that she had never sold any of it, and that it was for her own use.
The biggest blow is the hit to the cherished American concept of personal responsibility. It now becomes collective responsibility.
Interestingly, in Canada, with its full-on “single-payer” healthcare system, there seems to be no legal mandate for emergency rooms to treat foreign citizens. Administrators have been known to actually stop treatment for Americans injured in auto accidents until they could determine that the patient had private health insurance that the hospital could bill. On the web I found an interesting first-person account of this from an American physician who was licensed to practice in several U.S. States and Canadian provinces.
I wonder how American hospitals handle billing ER costs for Canadians injured in auto accidents in the U.S.? Anyone know?
A likely legal outcome of HCR is that the individual mandate to buy health insurance will be found to be unconstitutional. That will not affect the universal coverage requirement of HCR, so where will the money come from if the feds can't compel everyone to buy health insurance? The federal treasury, natch. One way the feds might try to make up this deficit is by raising personal income tax rates while simultaneously allowing people who have their own health insurance to deduct every penny of it on their personal income tax returns. It's already deductible now, of course, but it's “means tested” against your AGI (“Adjusted Gross Income”). Ending the “means testing” for health insurance premiums would create yet another yawning federal deficit unless there were a countervailing personal income tax increase. This would be a back door method for compelling everyone (or every tax-payer, anyway) to purchase health insurance without offending the Constitution, but it involves a tax increase, and a big one.
One of the best arguments for universal coverage (although not the HCR Act) is the high cost of the huge number of people who use emergency rooms as their personal physicians. ER care is very expensive, and many of these folks could be treated better, and much less expensively, if they had a personal physician. But federal law requires ERs to treat and stabilize every patient who shows up, irrespective of ability to pay, and the hospitals pass the costs for that on to everybody else in the form of higher overhead, higher fees for services for patients who can pay. This is one of the reasons (of many) that healthcare costs in the U.S. are as high as they are. And the theory is that once everybody is insured, hospitals will reduce their fees commensurately.
I don't think so!
I think the hospitals will keep their rates just where they are and bill the federal government for treatment of uninsured people in their ERs. No cost savings at all, just more demands on the federal treasury.
One commenter on the internet said something like:
I predict that large numbers of uninsured people will continue to show up in ERs and experts will wonder, “How can this possibly be?” The hospital administrators will push a clipboard of forms at these people, who will fill them out with false names and addresses, and get on with their lives. They don't want the “authorities” to know where they live or where they work, because it could cost them big bucks – get their wages garnished, for example. And this, in turn will create a demand in Congress for national identity cards; it's to prevent fraud, you see? It seems that a lot of the uninsured work at a variety of “day laborer” or temporary or part-time jobs or in the “cash economy”. These folks are not eligible for health insurance from their employers now, nor will they ever be: they change jobs too frequently for that, even under the new HCR Act. They don't have bank accounts, they don't own property, and they may not even have a fixed address. The idea that the feds will somehow be able to pin these folks down and get them to contribute to the costs of the new healthcare system is laughable.
Unless the HCR Act is repealed or amended, within a few years, the Dept. of Health and Human Services will begin issuing health insurance cards to everyone. These will be personal cards, issued to every American citizen (or “resident”, and that's a whole 'nother can of worms, isn't it?) and they will be extremely tamper-resistant. They will replace your current “Blue Cross” card (“too vulnerable to fraud, you know!”) and in fact, your own insurance company will stop issuing insurance cards in favor of the HHS card. These cards will become a defacto national identity card. Soon after that, the Transportation Security Administration will announce that these cards are now accepted as personal IDs for the purpose of air travel in the U.S. Then a few years later, the TSA will declare that these cards are mandatory for air travel (“compared to driver's licenses, they're more resistant to fraud and tampering, you know!”). The feds will attach a “rider” to a state highway bill mandating that states require drivers (and later, passengers) to carry these cards when traveling in a motor vehicle. Take that, Utah! Take that, New Hampshire! You will face sanctions if you do not carry this card on your person at all times.
At that point we will have a system of “internal passports”.
“Interstate Commerce? What does that mean when people are sick?”
The federal courts have long held that insurance is a state matter and not covered by the federal power to regulate interstate commerce, because no physical product actually changes hands. Although after Raich vs. Gonzales, it seems that the feds can now use “interstate commerce” to do anything they damned well please. Angel Raich lost her appeal because the Justice Dept. argued successfully that the six marijuana plants that she grew on her back porch affected the interstate price of marijuana; even though they admitted that she had never sold any of it, and that it was for her own use.
The biggest blow is the hit to the cherished American concept of personal responsibility. It now becomes collective responsibility.
Interestingly, in Canada, with its full-on “single-payer” healthcare system, there seems to be no legal mandate for emergency rooms to treat foreign citizens. Administrators have been known to actually stop treatment for Americans injured in auto accidents until they could determine that the patient had private health insurance that the hospital could bill. On the web I found an interesting first-person account of this from an American physician who was licensed to practice in several U.S. States and Canadian provinces.
I wonder how American hospitals handle billing ER costs for Canadians injured in auto accidents in the U.S.? Anyone know?
A likely legal outcome of HCR is that the individual mandate to buy health insurance will be found to be unconstitutional. That will not affect the universal coverage requirement of HCR, so where will the money come from if the feds can't compel everyone to buy health insurance? The federal treasury, natch. One way the feds might try to make up this deficit is by raising personal income tax rates while simultaneously allowing people who have their own health insurance to deduct every penny of it on their personal income tax returns. It's already deductible now, of course, but it's “means tested” against your AGI (“Adjusted Gross Income”). Ending the “means testing” for health insurance premiums would create yet another yawning federal deficit unless there were a countervailing personal income tax increase. This would be a back door method for compelling everyone (or every tax-payer, anyway) to purchase health insurance without offending the Constitution, but it involves a tax increase, and a big one.
One of the best arguments for universal coverage (although not the HCR Act) is the high cost of the huge number of people who use emergency rooms as their personal physicians. ER care is very expensive, and many of these folks could be treated better, and much less expensively, if they had a personal physician. But federal law requires ERs to treat and stabilize every patient who shows up, irrespective of ability to pay, and the hospitals pass the costs for that on to everybody else in the form of higher overhead, higher fees for services for patients who can pay. This is one of the reasons (of many) that healthcare costs in the U.S. are as high as they are. And the theory is that once everybody is insured, hospitals will reduce their fees commensurately.
I don't think so!
I think the hospitals will keep their rates just where they are and bill the federal government for treatment of uninsured people in their ERs. No cost savings at all, just more demands on the federal treasury.
One commenter on the internet said something like:
Somewhere in America there is a 500-lb woman with diabetes who just ate half a birthday cake and smoked her fifth cigarette of the morning. She can't afford health insurance, and we're gonna buy it for her.
I predict that large numbers of uninsured people will continue to show up in ERs and experts will wonder, “How can this possibly be?” The hospital administrators will push a clipboard of forms at these people, who will fill them out with false names and addresses, and get on with their lives. They don't want the “authorities” to know where they live or where they work, because it could cost them big bucks – get their wages garnished, for example. And this, in turn will create a demand in Congress for national identity cards; it's to prevent fraud, you see? It seems that a lot of the uninsured work at a variety of “day laborer” or temporary or part-time jobs or in the “cash economy”. These folks are not eligible for health insurance from their employers now, nor will they ever be: they change jobs too frequently for that, even under the new HCR Act. They don't have bank accounts, they don't own property, and they may not even have a fixed address. The idea that the feds will somehow be able to pin these folks down and get them to contribute to the costs of the new healthcare system is laughable.
Unless the HCR Act is repealed or amended, within a few years, the Dept. of Health and Human Services will begin issuing health insurance cards to everyone. These will be personal cards, issued to every American citizen (or “resident”, and that's a whole 'nother can of worms, isn't it?) and they will be extremely tamper-resistant. They will replace your current “Blue Cross” card (“too vulnerable to fraud, you know!”) and in fact, your own insurance company will stop issuing insurance cards in favor of the HHS card. These cards will become a defacto national identity card. Soon after that, the Transportation Security Administration will announce that these cards are now accepted as personal IDs for the purpose of air travel in the U.S. Then a few years later, the TSA will declare that these cards are mandatory for air travel (“compared to driver's licenses, they're more resistant to fraud and tampering, you know!”). The feds will attach a “rider” to a state highway bill mandating that states require drivers (and later, passengers) to carry these cards when traveling in a motor vehicle. Take that, Utah! Take that, New Hampshire! You will face sanctions if you do not carry this card on your person at all times.
At that point we will have a system of “internal passports”.
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Tea Parties, The Constitution, And You
Interesting essay in the NYT by their Supreme Court correspondent about renewed interest in the U.S. Constitution. Excerpt:The Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own guns, as opposed to one tied to militias, is another example of a transformation of a conventional understanding, Professor Levinson said, this one based on a view of the Constitution pressed by the National Rifle Association and its politically engaged supporters.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Chicks Rule, II
Women A 'Driving Force' In Ohio Handgun Sales
h/t Maddened Fowl, via Buckeye Firearms.Mansfield, Ohio - The influx of new concealed carry permits comes as the image of the average gun owner -- a middle-aged man -- is changing.
At a recent gun show in Mansfield, where vendors peddling everything from flak jackets to military meals ready-to-eat gave the event the feel of a survivalists convention, more than a few women milled around among the scores of men buying or looking.
"Since the CCW permits, more women are getting their CCW permits than men," said David Holden, 43, owner of an East Canton gun shop and one of the show's sellers. "Women are the driving force in the gun sales."
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