Guns are still legal

The Second Amendment says, "I ain't goin' out like that."


Gee, I never knew the Constitution was a House of Pain fan.

I would encourage every American to read the D.C. v. Heller decision. The majority opinion doesn't contain a lot of legalese and is, for the most part, straightforward. The dissenting opinions are a little more tedious to review. The footnotes in both are worthwhile, as well.

If you're lazy, and I presume you are, here are the highlights:

• The 2nd Amendment codifies an individual right that pre-dates the Constitution and was enshrined in English law as early as the mid 17th century.
• The amendment does not create this right, rather it is a recognition of a right that exists for all free people.
  
• Storage and use of a commonly available firearm, such as a handgun, for the defense of self or property, especially within the home or place of business, is protected by the 2nd Amendment. This means that the D.C. rules dictating that firearms be rendered inoperable are unconstitutional.
  
• The militia is the body of the people fit to fight. It is not the creation of state or federal government, as is the US Army (the raising of which is a Congressional power enumerated in Article I), but a ever-present subset of the population that may be called upon at any time.
  
• The Founders believed that the best protection from abuse by a powerful government, internal rebellion, or foreign invasion is a general population that keeps arms in the home and knows how to use them.
• Congress and the state assemblies have some leeway to regulate firearms, analogous to legislation criminalizing yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. For example, sawed-offed shotguns can be prohibited per the 1939 Miller decision because they have no common use in the military/militia.
  

Travel Day

I'm off to Washington, D.C. and vicinity today. Just hope this doesn't happen to me...

Ramsey's (Senate) Kitchen Nightmares

Inspired by the recent stories of the mismanagement of the U.S. Senate dining hall and associated eateries, I started to think about how that master of restaurant revitalization, Gordon Ramsey, would handle the situation. I think it would go a little something like this...

Ramsey (voice over): I'm in Washington, D.C. at the Dining Hall of the United States Senate. You'd think that the puff-chested windbags that run the place would demand first-class service, but the restaurant is a mess. It's lost money almost every year it's been in operation. Last year alone, the Senate restaurants were $2 million dollars in the red.

Ramsey (walking into dining room): F#@* me - nobody is in here. It looks like the cafeteria on a battleship. It's so dark and institutional. Let's try the food.

(Sampling something lumpy and the color of card board) Christ! I've had better food in a Malaysian petrol station. I don't know how the senators are going to explain this.

(Cut to Ramsey talking to several Senators) Ramsey: So, you're losing money.

Sen. Diane Feinstein: Yes.

Ramsey: Do you eat here? Do your staffers eat here?

Feinstein: No, all the Senate staffers seem to eat on the House side of Congress.

Ramsey: Doesn't that tell you something?

Feinstein: Our staffers are working hard with their colleagues in the House on important legislation for the American people... (drones on)

(Cut to Ramsey walking out of building) Ramsey: These senators are clueless. Neither they, nor their own staffers will go anywhere near the f*^@ing Dining Hall, yet none of them will lift a f$!@ing finger to do anything about the absolutely awful state of things. Only two new menu items have been added to the menu in the past ten years! No wonder nobody wants to eat here.

If I ran my restaurants that way, I'd be putting a "closed" sign in the window before the next election.

(Cut to Ramsey back in kitchen with Senators) Ramsey: Do any of you have experience managing a restaurant?

Senator: I sit on the Agriculture committee.

Ramsey: I want you to look at this kitchen. (Cut to scene of dirty dishes, greasy stoves, and wilting vegetables) Would you want your kitchen at home looking like this?

Feinstein: Of course not! I'd fire the cook and housekeeper if they left this mess for me to see!

Ramsey: Do you see all this food, the stuff that is just rotting on the counter? This is all just f^&#ing wasted. You might as well just pay your staff to throw food in the trash. Actually, if that gruel that I was served earlier is any indication, I'd recommend you pay them to throw it all in the garbage.

Why don't you fire these incompetent sods and get some real cooks in here?

Feinstein: It is our obligation to provide a well-paying job to these hardworking people, many of whom are disadvantaged and... (drones on)

Ramsey: But they are costing you millions!? You are losing money everyday by not changing.

Feinstein: These people are contributing to the economy of the... working mothers... ex-felons... minority advancement... undocumented workers... the American people understand that their tax dollars go to good causes subsidizing the jobs of...

Ramsey: I want you to seriously consider hiring a professional manager.

Feinstein: That sounds like privatization! We can't outsource this vital function of government!

Ramsey: Get it in your head, no one is eating here. This food isn't fit for a dog. You would be charged with aggravated assault if you gave the daily leftovers to the homeless.

Feinstein: I've worked hard to provide for our noble but displaced...

Ramsey: I give up. You f^#$ing politicians are entirely blind to what obviously needs to be done here. I just can't figure out if you are in denial, a complete idiot, or just like things being complete f@&%ed.

How to spend your free time...

If you have not done so already, pop over to --Ballista--> to read the commentary on the extraordinary days of June during WWII. Then, after reflected on the mettle of the soldiers and sailors who made those days so extraordinary, lighten up with one of the movies Ballista reviews in a few earlier posts.

Scrabble Scribble

I was setting up to play Scrabble (you remember Scrabble, right?) the other day when something struck me. I noticed that when selecting the initial 7 letters the other players and I picked them from all around the container. This is only interesting when you consider that the letter squares have, supposedly, been well mixed and are randomly distributed across the box. We were trying to randomize our selection of already randomly arranged squares! Of course, if the squares are truly randomly distributed and it should not matter from where in the box you draw the letters. I should be able to pick 7 squares all adjacent to each other and get 7 random letters. Yet my brain tells met that I have to pick from all box to achieve the best selection of letters. There's a psychological term for this type of behavior but I can't recall it at the moment.

Am I the only one who thinks its intriguing how our brains work to influence our behavior?

I had this very experience last year from Dilbert's perspective - a meaningless chart crammed with colored shapes because the client was too stupid and lazy to read a report. This is why I refuse to work in corporations of any significant size.

You're a MOTOR company, right?

This is something of follow-up to my recent posts on gasoline prices and automobile manufacturing. Several major car companies, including Nissan, Toyota, and GM, have announced plans for new all-electric or hybrid products to be introduced over the next 4-odd years. After some additional pondering on the matter, I have an important questions:

You guys are MOTOR companies, right? The word MOTOR is there in your name - General MOTORS, Toyota MOTORS, etc...

So why can't you just build me an electric motor to replace the internal combustion one in my current car? I really like my current car. It's extremely reliable and gets almost 30 mpg on the highway (and it was built in the early '90s). I'm confident there are engineers out there who would love the challenge of retrofitting a shiny new electric motor into my car and replace the gas tank with some sort of battery/power cell. Maybe I need to go into the retrofit motor business and become the next Henry Ford.