Interesting times.

Homeland security can demand your papers for any reason no arrest no
warrent if you're within 100 miles of a border.

But Arizona can't pass a law mirroring Federal statute that would require you to show your ID after being arrested for an actual crime. But Arizona can be beaten up in reports to the UN, because we have to answer to the likes of China, Lybia, and Russia on Human Rights.

Edit: More on this subject by Roberta X Specifically on getting used to it: frog, water, stove.

Identifying criminals to see if they're on record for other crimes: Bad!
Hassling train passengers for their ID because they're on a train: Good!

Fanny that Rhode Island which has the same law as Arizona and gets a pass.
And as for "sanctuary cities" that have passed laws declaring their stance to ignore federal law? Well that's okay, those places don't have to worry about the DOJ

The speaker of the house can want to investigate people for unapproved speech and Secretary Sebelius wants reeducation for Obamacare opponents.



But Congress is making it so the CIA has to "stay away from anything that is unpleasant, politically incorrect, or potentially embarrassing." and they want to avoid anything messy in Afghanistan, like going after the drug lords that fund the Taliban and others.

This is related to a piece by Richard Fernandez.

He points out that such things are not examples of hypocrisy or double
standards. Instead they are merely the result of a simple operating postulate.

But the problem isn’t the height of the bar. There is no function that will tell you, for any given height of bar, whether it is appropriate or inappropriate. The key to understanding this conundrum is that modern public policy logic doesn’t return a Boolean. It returns an item in a list. In considering whether it is appropriate to talk about God on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, or inquiring into the connections of the Koch Brothers or Imam Rauf nothing is ‘true’ or
‘false’. It all depends on the elements of the list.

Glenn Beck or Martin Luther King returns Martin Luther King.

Imam Rauf or Koch Brothers returns Imam Rauf.

Some things are never OK if you’re Glenn Beck. Some things are always OK if you’re the Imam Rauf. It’s just like certain programming languages, which have rules like: x or y if x is false, then y, else x. In this case ‘conservative’=false. Also, anyone who the Left doesn’t like =’conservative’. From this all else follows. This is
especially important when it comes to identifying evil or potentially
evil people.

Some things are always okay if you are a Democrat, some things are never okay if you are a Republican. Some things are always okay if you're one of the smart-set, some things are never okay if you're a bitter clinger.

In short: know your, place serf.


More on this by Ed Driscoll

As Kathy Shaidle likes to say, the credo of what passes for 21st
century “liberalism” boils down to, “It’s Different When We Do It”;
James Taranto sees it as a case of, “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose:”

Replace liberalism with "big government" or statist and that's how you get a police state where people can be hassled for their papers, xrayed via mobile "scanning vans" , and have gps trackers put on their cars , all without warrants or an arrest for the commission of a crime. And all that will be considered normal and patriotic.

But! But if you suggest to the same folk that maybe the government should enforce it's own laws like for immigration, fighting people what want to blow up buildings, or for balanced budgets (which many states are supposed to maintain by law) then you're a racist.

Mark Steyn said it best: Tyranny is always whimsical.

If you follow a "Big Man" in the hope that at least the trains will run on time, prepare to be disappointed.

A new Army carbine? Really?

It looks like the army has a plan to upgrade their standard rifle.

It comes in three parts, one is to continue the evolutionary improvements of the M16, M4 systems. This is in an improved M4A1 that will be getting mass distribution.

Following that will be further evolutions of the system.

The second phase of the M4 improvement program begins this fall and will focus on increasing the M4’s effectiveness and accuracy, with emphasis on the bolt, bolt carrier assembly and the forward rail assembly.

The final part is a potential new weapon including changes to the operating system (direct impingement versus piston).

Interesting stuff, though I suspect they'll merely continue the slow incremental improvement of the system. There seems to be too much inertia given the decades of existing service, with the decades of known performance.

The power of Fox News, Talk Radio, and the Tea Party...

... is that they can infect anyone into committing Hate Crimes. Anyone, even activist working for the People's Party and harmless art students working for Peace.

Why else would the MSM is quick to blame the Right and now the Tea Parties whenever there's violence?

Unfortuantly reality doesn't really support their Narrative.

Mean old reality. Can't we all just pretend that this violence is coming from the Right wing? Instead of disgruntled Democratic campaign staffers and "drunk art students working for peace organizations."

And looking back in history here's some anti-science terrorism.

Also via Glen Reynolds.

William Jacobson explores the narrative spinning. And goes with the money quote from Jim Treacher.

Here’s how it works: When 19 Muslim terrorists fly planes into buildings and murder thousands of people, it’s not a reflection on all Muslims. Or any Muslims besides those 19, for that matter. But when a drunk A-hole in the same neighborhood yells “As-salaam alaikum! Consider this a checkpoint!” and stabs a Muslim cabbie, it’s a reflection on all opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque.

If they can't get the guns they'll get the bullets...

The EPA is "considering" changing an existing regulation. That way they can ban all bullets that use lead.

This is the country we live in, where unelected bureaucrats can heavily
restrict an enumerated right by fiat.

Yes, steel and tungsten and other metals are still available, but this will make shooting much, much more expensive, and will greatly reduce recreational shooting and price firearms ownership right out of many hands.

Which I'm sure is the attention. Can't have poor people thinking they've got rights.
And can't let someone have fun that is morally upsetting to our betters.

There you have it, no limited constitutional republic here. All three parts are being broken.

A related piece on how administrative agencies have been creating laws.

Separation of powers, what's that?


Allahpundit is more sanguine about things.

I could sit here for a week and not come up with an issue more likely to make already vulnerable House Dems wet themselves than this one, assuming that the EPA acts on it. Which, I’m guessing, they won’t.

...

The date the comment period ends? Two days before the midterms. Worst-case scenario here: The EPA announces the ban, thereby instantly causing a stampede of Blue Dogs from rural districts down Pennsylvania Avenue so that they can pass a bill overriding it. (If the ban comes next year, our new Republican House — and Senate? — will take care of it, natch.) Then it’s on to The One’s desk for signature, and rest assured, with his eye on 2012 and knowing that he’ll need western and midwestern states to win, he will sign it. Maybe even with a smiley face as the “O.” Damn, I love wedge issues.

To be fair, Obama has left firearms alone so far. So maybe he's got some sense of what's too self-destructive. However, note that this is all dependent on electoral backlash hurting the Dems for he EPA's totalitarian impulses.

So, it's certainly a reason to get out there and vote, at the very least.

Update: To be a bit clear I do think Allah's take is right on this one. This seems far too hot for the EPA to actually go through with it, and even if they did, it doesn't seem likely to stay enacted. For one thing there will be even more nullification, legal challenges, and people outright ignoring it.

There's always a worse question.

Ed Driscoll asks: What’s the Second Coming of FDR, without his Depression?

Be careful what you wish for progressives.

Well it could be worse. Like: "What's the Second Coming of FDR, without a World War?"

But it's not like global instability and agression is being encouraged by the president's behaviour. I mean it's not like there was a World War on Carter's watch.


See! It's not so bad!

"Simple" Revolvers and Literate Death

First we've got Tam talking about Revolvers.

Let me tell you something about revolvers: People wax poetic about their ruggedness, reliability and simplicity, but when they call a revolver "simple", it makes me wonder if they've ever had the sideplate off of one. The mechanical ballet going on inside a Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector makes your typical autopistol look like a stone axe by comparison. Further, a revolver demands clearances measured in thousandths at both ends of the cylinder in order for it to turn freely and still function with reliability and accuracy.

It's funny how much of a meme that bit about revolvers being the simple guns is.


Then we've got Joanna with an essay about libraries culling "old books" but it's more than libraries.

My concern about the state of our libraries is not, at its root, for the libraries themselves. It is for what they and their state represent. A well-kept library represents the desire of a community to better itself, to attain knowledge, to learn from the past. The library’s contents show that community’s interests and areas of study. Therefore, culling older materials is an alarming sign, not just because of the loss of available knowledge but because it shows, and I mean this without hyperbole, a point lost on the cosmic scoreboard.

There is a bit of an upside see if you can find it from this bit of the anecdote at the core of the essay.

Recently, I have had quite a few patrons requesting different books such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Screwtape Letters" and other classics and I was unable to fulfill their request because libraries either do not have them or are unwilling to loan them out anymore.

Sure libraries have failed in their basic duty, but at least people still want to read those books. That's... something.

And why not here's the decay of basic math, with Tam asking: When did people become unable to make change?

So it goes.

Given these trends I don't think humanity will dived into the Eloi and the Morlocks. No, I think we have the risk of becoming a hybrid. The vapid idle hedonism of the Eli with the angry savagery of the Morlocks.

Weaponized Democracy

In China there's a General that is speaking of the need for democratic reforms, and he's being published and giving talks and is not being censured or imprisoned. Which means that there is some level of official approval.

But why is General Liu pushing for reforms?

Liu's backing of democracy is purely practical, and really has
nothing to do with political beliefs. He describes American democracy
as a system designed by a genius for effective use by stupid people.
As Liu puts it, ''a bad system makes a good person behave badly while
a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most
important reform for China, for without it there can be no sustainable
growth.''

Liu has also been active in anti-corruption efforts, and points out
that democracies tend to have far less corruption than
non-democracies. This gets the attention of Communist Party officials,
who have long believed that the Russians made a mistake by enacting
economic reforms as well as political ones. Liu points out that the
Russians had no choice, as the communists in Russia were completely
discredited, and the economic reforms followed the political collapse.

Liu points out that communists can compete in a democratic
environment, especially since Chinese communists have abandoned the
most destructive aspects of traditional communist doctrine (state
control of the economy).

Consider that. A general is considering democracy (or at least representational government as a method to achieve military results via healthier business growth, cleaner government, and more technological advancement.


Isn't it interesting? A Chi-Comm sees the US's military and economic strength as a side effect of being a representative republic. He infers that the electoral process is a feedback system that can remove government officials that are... problematic.

Of course the US system only works when the populace response to provocations and "throws the bums out" when required.