A Geek With Guns

I must say if Ron Paul actually chooses Judge Napolitano as his running mate it would be the first presidential ticket in history that I could get entirely behind. From Paul’s statement it sounds as though Napolitano is a possibility:

“One time somebody asked me who I would consider and the name Judge Napolitano jumps right out at me,” Paul said to raucous cheers of approval.

All I can say is, yes please.

Most people express a desire to support the military personell of the United States. Driving down any busy highway will likely lead to seeing at least one bumper sticker that reads, “I Support Our Troops.” If you really want to support our troops then you should stand behind the presidential candidate they stand behind:

The number of civilians walking behind the veterans and active duty marching to show that “Ron Paul is the Choice of the Troops” was reported to be over 1,000 family members and supporters. The official march by the troops and veterans themselves is believed to have been an additional 900 people. It is unclear at this time, how many members of the public may have been in the crowd to observe this historic public statement by our veterans in support of Ron Paul for President of the United States.

I will also point out the fact that members of the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force are Paul’s biggest financial contributors.

Support the troops and vote for the candidate who will bring them home. When it comes to sending supplies to the troops most Americans are all for it but when it comes to preserving those troops’ lives from being needlessly wasted most people seem unwilling to do what is necessary and work to get Paul into office.

Periodically I like to cruise sites like GovTrack, OpenCongress, and the Library of Congress THOMAS looking for interesting pieces of legislation. I found a true gem with HR 3784, the Gas Price Spike Act of 2012. What does this bill do? It places a tax on any profits made by oil companies that are beyond “reasonable.” That isn’t the best part though, what defines “reasonable” is whatever the newly established Reasonable Profits Board decides:

`(a) In General- In addition to any other tax imposed under this title, there is hereby imposed an excise tax on the sale in the United States of any crude oil, natural gas, or other taxable product a tax equal to the applicable percentage of the windfall profit on such sale.

`(b) Definitions- For purposes of this section–

`(1) TAXABLE PRODUCT- The term `taxable product’ means any fuel which is a product of crude oil or natural gas.

`(2) WINDFALL PROFIT- The term `windfall profit’ means, with respect to any sale, so much of the profit on such sale as exceeds a reasonable profit.

`(3) APPLICABLE PERCENTAGE- The term `applicable percentage’ means–

`(A) 50 percent to the extent that the profit on the sale exceeds 100 percent of the reasonable profit on the sale but does not exceed 102 percent of the reasonable profit on the sale,

`(B) 75 percent to the extent that the profit on the sale exceeds 102 percent of the reasonable profit on the sale but does not exceed 105 percent of the reasonable profit on the sale, and

`(C) 100 percent to the extent that the profit on the sale exceeds 105 percent of the reasonable profit on the sale.

`(4) REASONABLE PROFIT- The term `reasonable profit’ means the amount determined by the Reasonable Profits Board to be a reasonable profit on the sale.

Emphasis mine. Whatever this Reasonable Profits Board decides becomes the amount that is taxable meaning if they decided profits of $1,000 was “unreasonable” they could begin taxing oil companies that made profits exceeding $1,000. Glorious huh? They get to define any amount of profit as “reasonable” and tax accordingly. If this bill passes I would expect it to take no more than one year before this idea gets applied to other industries.

Apparently not Dave Mustaine:

Speaking of news, you were a correspondent for MTV during the 1992 presidential election. What’s your take on US politics in 2012?

“I’m just hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican. I can’t bear to watch what’s happened to our great country. Everybody’s got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, ‘Oh, Obama’s doing such a great job…’ I don’t think so. Not from what I see.

“Looking at the Republican candidates, I’ve got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney’s five boys have a $100 million trust fund. Where does a guy make that much money? So there’s some questions there. And watching Newt Gingrich, I was pretty excited for a while, but now he’s just gone back to being that person that everybody said he was – that angry little man. I still like him, but I don’t think I’d vote for him.

“Ron Paul… you know, I heard somebody say he was like insecticide – 98 percent of it’s inert gases, but it’s the two percent that’s left that will kill you. What that means is that he’ll make total sense for a while, and then he’ll say something so way out that it negates everything else. I like the guy because he knows how to excite the youth of America and fill them in on some things. But when he says that we’re like the Taliban… I’m sorry, Congressman Paul, but I’m nothing like the Taliban.

“Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable. Also, just watching how he hasn’t gotten into doing these horrible, horrible attack ads like Mitt Romney’s done against Newt Gingrich, and then the volume at which Newt has gone back at Romney… You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I’m hoping that if it does come down to it, we’ll see a Republican in the White House… and that it’s Rick Santorum.”

While Dave has become loonier by the year his endorsement of Santorum slightly surprised me. Being a born again Christian has lead to lots of idiotic decisions including his refuse to play many old Megadeth songs because they’re “satanic” in nature and playing shows with “satanic” bands. Either way with his absolute fear of a new world order I can’t believe he thought supporting a tyrannical bastard like Santorum was a good idea.

My respect for Mustaine has been dwindling for ages now but it’s almost entirely gone. The man fronts a band that was once great and is responsible for writing much of the Metallica material I really enjoy but his loony ranting is difficult to separate from his music.

I’ve talked about jury nullification several times on this blog but I don’t believe I’m talked about the ability of states of nullify federal laws. Through state legislation federal laws can be rendered unenforceable, or nullified. This has been done numerous times throughout American history with my favorite example of Wisconsin’s nullification of the Fugitive Slaves Act. Various states also nullified the REAL ID Act by passing legislation prohibiting the act from being implemented in those states.

The passed of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was not a happy moment in American history as it granted the United States government the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial. While Ron Paul introduced legislation to repeal the erroneous provision Virginia has decided to simply nullify the provision:

On Tuesday, February 14th, the Virginia House of Delegates voted in favor of House Bill 1160 (HB1160). The final vote was 96-4.

The legislative goal of HB1160 is to codify in Virginia law noncompliance with what many are referring to as the “kidnapping provisions” of section 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA). The official summary of 1160:

“A BILL to prevent any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency of the armed forces of the United States in the conduct of the investigation, prosecution, or detention of a citizen in violation of the United States Constitution, the Constitution of Virginia, or any Virginia law or regulation.”

I hope other states will follow Virginia’s fine example.

Amy Klobuchar, one of the two idiot clowns elected to be senators in Minnesota, is presenting an amendment to a transportation bill that will supposedly address the shortage of medicinal drugs in the United States:

The recent shortage of a critical medicine for childhood cancer has prompted Senator Amy Klobuchar to attach her bill on drug shortages to transportation legislation under discussion in the Senate, the lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, along with Robert Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, introduced a bill that would force drug companies to tell the Food and Drug Administration about looming shortages. The FDA said early notification helped it to prevent 99 shortages in 2011.

This legislation fails to address the actual problem. An interesting fact I came across in a previous, but related, post was the fact that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) put quotes on the amount of drugs pharmaceutical companies can produce. I did some looking around and came across a Department of Justice (DoJ) report [PDF] that flat out stated this fact:

DEA limits the quantity of Schedule I and II controlled substances which may be produced in the United States in any given calendar year. By utilizing available data on sales and inventories of these controlled substances, and taking into account estimates of drug usage provided by the FDA, the DEA establishes annual aggregate production quotas for Schedule I and II controlled substances. The aggregate production quota is allocated among the various manufacturers who are registered to manufacture the specific drug. DEA also allocates the amount of bulk drug which may be procured by those companies which prepare the drug into dosage units.

Klobuchar is forcing pharmaceutical companies to report shortages to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who will, I guess, report the shortage to the DEA who will raise it’s production limit. A simpler solution that would take care of this entire mess in one fell swoop would be to remove the DEA’s quotes on drug production. Instead of attacking the actual problem, the DEA’s power to create artificial shortages, Klobuchar has decided to put more burden on manufacturers.

The war on drugs has far wider implications than illegal drugs. Along with trying to control verboten drugs the DEA also attempts to control legal drugs and part of their scheme involves restricting the quantities that can be produced by pharmaceutical companies. These restrictions are responsible for shortages of other medical drugs yet the government refuses to attack the actual problem, instead they pile more bureaucracy on top of the already thickly layer bureaucracy. It’s not turtles all the way down, it’s bureaucracy all the way down.

Of course Klobuchar is going to be cheered on as a proponent of the people for this amendment because the average American doesn’t understand or care about the actual causes of problems.

In a way you almost have to admire statists. Regardless of how often they are proven wrong they always managed to find some way to make ultimatums that make their opposition look like really bad people. Case in point, the current debate over Internet surveillance laws that is taking place in Canada right now. Opponents of Internet surveillance laws say they will violate the privacy of Canadian citizens while the supporters have said anybody who opposes said laws support child pornography:

But when Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia attacked the Conservatives for “preparing to read Canadians’ emails and track their movements through cellphone signals” – which does appear to be a severe distortion of the bill’s powers – Mr. Toews’s counterattack was fierce.

“As technology evolves, many criminal activities, such as the distribution of child pornography, become much easier,” he told the House. “We are proposing to bring measures to bring our laws into the 21st century and to provide police with the lawful tools that they need.

“He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.”

“Child pornography” is the new say for statists to say, “Shut up slave!” without actually using the word slave (as that word has some negative connotations). Anytime they want to shove a new law down our throats they either claim it’s for the children or to fight terrorism. In this sense you have to give the statists credit for being consistant. While anti-statists find an almost uncountable number of reasons statism is bad the statists only need one; fear. When anti-statists say Internet surveillance is a violation of laws protecting people from unwarranted search and seizure the statist only needs to reply with one of two boogeymen; child pornographers or terrorists (or, theoretically, terrorist child pornographers).

I doubt it needs pointing out but the choice between an Internet free of government snooping and child pornography is a false dichotomy. The Internet is remarkably good at policing itself. When a highly undesirable thing appears on the Internet groups like Anonymous move to attack it.

This week on Politics: The Reality Television Show for Suckers, Obama puts forth a new tax plan that he claims will increase government revenue by $1.5 trillion:

US President Barack Obama has proposed to raise taxes on the wealthy in his 2013 budget, prompting an election year spending showdown with Republicans.

The proposal includes $1.5 trillion (£950bn) in new taxes, much from allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

Who will win this entirely pointless debate that completely misses the point that the government is simply spending too much money? Could Obama and the Democrats pull off a tax increase that will fail to raise enough money to effect the deficit in any notable way or will the Republicans shut down the attempted tax increase that is ultimately without consequence? Join us all week on Days of Our Lives Politics as the debate rages on!

While we don’t know who will claim victory, we do know nothing of value will be accomplished!

Our country is a mess. We have accumulated so much debt that we’re never going to be able to repay it, the government continues to spend even more money that it doesn’t have, our country is involved in several wars, and nothing seems to change. While I can’t address the first three items I just typed out I can address the last. The reason nothing changes in this country is because of people like this:

I had the pleasure of attending my caucus on Tuesday night. Presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke. He said some things that I agreed with wholeheartedly (70 percent), and some that I thought were either unrealistic, unfeasible, impossible or flat-out lunacy (30 percent). He took no questions.

I came to the caucus with no real “dog in this fight.” I ended up supporting Rick Santorum, but not enthusiastically. At the caucus, I asked a Paul supporter two questions: 1) Is Paul a real Republican or a libertarian, and 2) If he loses the nomination, will he support the eventual Republican nominee and swear off running as an independent or libertarian?

I had kicked the hornets’ nest. I was greeted with some obscenities. I was “a tool of the system.” I was the problem, not Ron Paul.

I was young and dumb once, and wasted a vote on Ross Perot. The folksy rich guy turned out to be nothing more than a unbalanced, mean spirited 1-percenter who would do anything to see that George H.W. Bush didn’t get a second term. Perot finished a distant third, but got his wish on Bush’s reelection, and I got eight years of an unprincipled guy willing to fool around with girls a third his age.

Huyck is a classic example of somebody who puts the part before political common sense. He’s not concerned about putting the most qualified man into the Oval Office, he only cares that his party is the one occupying it. The problem is, with a single exception, everybody running for the Republican candidate is a big government war monger that wants to legislate morality, the exact thing that has gotten us into the massive mess we face now. Ron Paul is not a Republican in the modern sense and expecting him to swear an oath of loyalty is pure stupidity. What this country really needs is an individual who understands economics, liberty, and is willing to buck the trend of ever expanding government. While Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich continue to pay lip service to such concepts they have no track record backing up their rhetoric. Even though people blame our current mess on Obama and the Democrats the truth is that the Republicans hold just as much responsibility as they also continued to expand the size of government. It’s not the red Republicans against the blue Democrats, it’s just one big fucking party of purple.

Huych then talks about “wasting” his vote on Ross Perot. Here’s the thing, statistically speaking, all votes are wasted. One vote doesn’t matter and Huych voting for Ross Perot wasn’t the death knell for Bush Senior or Dole. Does he honestly thing this country would have been better under a second term of the first Bush or a term of Dole? Hell we wouldn’t have been any better off if McCain won instead of Obama. Honestly, in my opinion, any vote cast simply to support a party instead of an individual is entirely wasted.

Finally I love his last line:

All I ask is that everyone treat their vote like it really matters.

JAY HUYCK, MAPLE GROVE

Unfortunately, as the link I previous posted proves, your vote doesn’t matter. Whether I go to the ballot and vote for Romney or stay home the outcome will be exactly the same because no major election has ever been decided by a single vote. I’m not entirely opposed to voting, it’s a tool the state allows to enact some kind of change and if we can get a liberty minded candidate in office I’m going to support him through and through. What I will not do is waste my time going to the poll to vote between Romney, Santorum, or Gingrich versus Obama. In that race no matter who wins we all lose.

I’m sure you’ve all read the news that Santorum won the Minnesota straw poll. While I feel a great deal of shame for my state selecting a raging homophone war monger as their current Republican choice I’m glad to report my precinct didn’t follow suit.

Ron Paul swept my precinct in both the straw poll (Ron Paul came in first with 16 votes, Santorum came in second with 11 votes, Romney made third with 10 votes, and Gingrich came in dead last with 1 vote) and delegates. The important part of this race are the delegates and the Ron Paul campaign has demonstrated great organizational ability when it comes to getting them.