Press "Enter" to skip to content

Month: December 2014

SAF files suit against I-594

As expected, the Second Amendment Foundation (in conjunction with other groups and individuals) has filed suit against Washington state’s ghastly new law, I-594. Grounds: vagueness, etc. That was also expected. A sixth grader could have written a clearer, more specific law. Those of us who’ve been watching Gottlieb’s chicanery on “background checks” for the last few years will also not be the slightest bit surprised at this part of his statement announcing the lawsuit: “We’re not trying to stop background checks.” Damn betcha he’s not. Gottlieb infamously wants background checks; he just wants them on his own terms and for…

2 Comments

A pair of good reads

… for the long, idle post-celebration hours ahead. In The Atlantic James Fallows writes about “The Tragedy of the American Military”. How we can reflexively say, “Thank you for your service” and claim that all soldiers are heroes — precisely because most of us are so removed from the realities of their lives, their missions, and the management of military matters. The German ‘zine Spiegel Online goes inside the NSA for an educated guess about what types of encryption the NSA has broken, which it’s working on, and which are so far safe from its prying eyes. Both articles are…

7 Comments

Monday links

The latest Twitter hashtag: #IMBLOCKEDBYSHANNONWATTS. Go get ‘er, Nicki! So sadly believable. In the last century +, western nations have cut their average work weeks by 30 hours. Guess what people are doing with all that glorious free time? Was Santa good to you? Better doublecheck. Those Christmas presents may be spying on you. Not sure why this didn’t get more coverage a few weeks back: Woman abused and jailed for taking perfectly legal photos from a perfectly legal spot finally gets a little justice. Um … healthier ways to be lazy.

9 Comments

Weekend links

Mostly not nooz. 🙂 Think your way to stronger muscles. (No doubt has a lot of applications beyond muscles, too.) (Formerly) dying man says adopted stray dog — that he didn’t even want — helped cure his cancer. It’s not really news that religious people are happier than us non-religious. Question is, are they happier because of something about their religion or are they happier because they’re the sort of people who don’t poke and prod at every extraordinary claim, the sort who just accept the word of their chosen authority and get on with life? Yes, Christmas Eve was…

14 Comments

Refusal as a weapon

Mike Vanderboegh does it again: “Refusal as a Weapon.” “There is NO unconstitutional law that Mike Bloomberg can buy that we cannot nullify with armed civil disobedience.” This one’s a real barnburner. The most inspirational, the most tell-it-like-it-is thing you’ll read all year. Spread the link. I’ll be posting it at The Zelman Partisans as well as here.

1 Comment

Thanx and Linx

Just a quick note to thank you all for hanging in there and keeping things going while I’ve been hermitting more and blogging less. The Commentariat is alive and well! Thanks also for making up (big time) for lost time on Amazon. Seems everybody was just doing their Christmas shopping at the last minute this year. I was worried when November flopped, but you’ve made December very good, indeed. I also owe somebody a thank you for a gift that arrived this morning, an Opinel No. 8 carbon-steel folding knife (Amazon link for it). Has an impressively sharp blade and…

10 Comments

Trek to Raymond, Part II

Part I here.

One Raymond, Washington, resident expresses his enthusiasm for the town’s new status:

CannabisinRaymond_GonetoPotSign_122914

—–

Washington state’s new recreational cannabis law is known for being a little less “wild westy” than Colorado’s. The Rocky Mountain High state rushed its implementation and has had some problems. Washington (which only legalized private liquor sales shortly before it legalized pot) went about things more slowly and bureaucratically.

9 Comments