Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

A tale of two nanny states

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Back after a week in the San Francisco Bay Area with the family, exploring parks and museums, visiting relatives, and generally having a good time. As a visitor I could only experience the awesome nanny state that is California in very limited doses.  It is unfathomable to me what it must ...

Just when you thought it was safe to read again

Friday, March 20th, 2009

I'm taking a break--planned this time!  I will be on holiday with the family in California.  We leave early tomorrow and will return the following Saturday.  The chances are excellent you won't see any updates during the next week. After a near-eight-month hiatus, I don't think an extra week will make ...

A Heller of a notion.

Friday, June 27th, 2008

I've read speculation in more than a few places around the blogosphere that the Supreme Court's ruling in Heller, which struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns, should lead to lower murder rates in the nation's capital (and elsewhere, assuming similar bans can be successfully challenged). Allow me to ...

Apologia

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Sorry for the extended hiatus here; the last couple of months have not been conducive to making regular updates.  I am reworking how I keep track of stories for the blog, which I'm hoping will make it easier for me to post nightly and not let the backlog pile up.  ...

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood SWAT team.

Monday, February 18th, 2008

79. It's for the children: the Colorado legislature considers a bill that would criminalize negligent storage of firearms. 80. Aside from the top-secret Camp 7 within the Gitmo terrorist camp, it's now possible that detainees convicted of terrorism could face the death penalty and be executed on Gitmo, which would be ...

Garnishments, gambling and grilled hot dogs.

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

68. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she might be willing to garnish workers' wages in order to ensure universal health care coverage. She might want to ask Mitt Romney, late of the Republican nomination race, how that has worked out. 69. President Bush sends a $3.1 trillion budget to ...

The needle and the damage done.

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

59. Public health workers turn drug users into first responders by handing out rescue kits that can reverse potentially fatal overdoses. But the White House would rather the junkies just die: But Dr. Bertha Madras, deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, opposes the use ...

Blood, smoke and tears

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

43. A Chesapeake, Virginia man is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a police officer, after his home was raided on a tip that he was growing a large amount of marijuana.  Ryan Frederick claims to have fired in self-defense, not knowing the intruder was a cop.  ...

Fuck you, Milton Friedman.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Going forward, I shall refer to the day on which I prepare my family's tax return, which this year falls on January 30, as Fuck Milton Friedman Day. Friedman, for all of his great contributions to economic theory and advocacy of the free market, was also instrumental in developing the Federal ...

“Your papers, comrade. No, not THOSE papers.”

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

31. Minnesota-born Thomas Warziniack is detained for weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement because they mistakenly believe he's an illegal Russian immigrant. I know, I know, mistakes are made, all in the name of national security. 32. An air traveler passes through security at Reagan National Airport with a loaded ...