Category Archives: Liberty

Wherein Pino Proposes Make Sense Gun Legislation

Posted on May 9, 2013 | 1 comment

Guns

In Minnesota DUI offenders can be mandated to carry what are referred to as “Whiskey Plates” on their cars.  These license plates begin with letters reserved in Minnesota for just such a reason; W, X and Z.  The idea is that any on duty officer, for any reason that should move him under the canopy of heaven, can pull over the driver of the car and subject him to a breathalyzer.

Perhaps we need to profile gun criminals.  For example, a quick look at anecdotal evidence from a single bust in North Carolina:

The police department worked in concert with  the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to identify the men, all known felons. The men and their charges are as follows:

Lorenza Dickens, 28, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a stolen firearm, aid and abetting

Tron Davis, 31, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon; possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance; possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime

James Taylor Jr., 30, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon; dealing firearms without a license

Morgan Terrell, 25, of Rocky Mount;
receive/possess a sawed-off shotgun; possession of stolen firearm

Henry Purvis, 59, Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by felon

Johnny Darden, 51 of Pinetops;
possession of a firearm by a felon

Benjamin Mcpherson, 30, Rocky Mount;
dealing firearms without a license; receive/ship/transport of a firearm with an obliterated serial number; possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance; receive/possess a sawed-off shotgun; possession of a stolen firearm; conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. government

Andrick Johnson, 35, of Rocky Mount;
Dealing firearms without a license; possession of a firearm by a felon

William Cherry, 24, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon; possession of a sawed-off shotgun

Mark Bishop, 37, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon; possession of a stolen firearm

Donald Harrison, 47, of Rocky Mount;
arson/attempted arson

Darryel Hill, 23, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon

Wendell Lloyd, 29, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon; possession of firearm during a drug trafficking crime; possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance; maintaining a place for a controlled substance; receive/ship/transport of a firearm with an obliterated serial number

Jamie Bryant, 35, of Rocky Mount;
possession of a firearm by a felon

Jimmy Hunter, 36, of Rocky Mount
possession a firearm by a felon

Ozay Richardson, 41, of Rocky Mount
possession of a firearm by a felon; possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime; possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance

James Woodley, 28, of Rocky Mount
possession of a firearm by a felon

  • 100% men
  • 100% known felons
  • 76% between the ages of 15 and 40

I’m just saying that maybe before we get all worked up about checking the backgrounds of people willing to submit to background checks, we should admit who commits crimes with guns and work to remove the guns from them.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: National

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There Is No End To Political Correctness

Posted on May 8, 2013 | 2 comments

Chris Kluwe

For the record, Kluwe and I share the same position on gay marriage.  We both feel that folks of any sexual preference ought to enter into marriage as far as the state is concerned.  Further, Kluwe and I advocate our positions in social media; me on Facebook, this blog and sometimes Twitter.  Kluwe too.

Our primary difference, aside form the fact that his influence is significantly higher than mine, is that he is engaged in a profession that has a fantastically low career life-span and one that is over the top performance based.  To further tip the scales in my favor, my company faces no arbitrary salary cap or limit to “active employees”.

This week, Chris Kluwe was released from the Minnesota Vikings.  And the PC world is going nuts, including the governor of Minnesota:

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Gov. Mark Dayton thinks sports teams, like politicians, should be honest about decisions that are being made.

“Yeah, I don’t feel good about it,” said Dayton when asked about the Minnesota Vikings decision to release outspoken punter Chris Kluwe on Monday.

“I’m not in a position to evaluate the relative punting abilities, but it seems to me the general manager said, right after the draft, they were going to have competition,” Dayton recalled. “Well, they bring the one guy in, he kicks for a weekend and that’s competition?”

Serious.

The governor feels the need to weigh in on the personal moves of a professional sports team.  I can’t imagine many things less concerning to a governor than that.  However, in true liberal form, he makes his point and then “covers himself” at the same time:

“That’s their decision to make,” Dayton concluded. “They don’t give political advice. I don’t give them coaching advice.”

Yeah, perhaps you should have taken your own advice before you opened your mouth.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: State

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Best Headling Of The Day

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 1 comment

Union

This made me smile:

Union rights dealt a blow again by appeals court 

The National Labor Relations Board violated the law when it required U.S. businesses to put notices in their workplaces and on their websites informing employees of their right to unionize, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down the rule, finding that federal law prohibits the labor board from punishing a business for speech, or lack of it, as long as the business does not issue threats.

Freedom of speech “necessarily protects … the right of employers (and unions) not to speak,” Judge Raymond Randolph wrote for the appeals court.

When the power of trade unions grow, the liberty of individuals is diminished.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: National

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Gun Control In America – A Solution Looking For A Problem

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 12 comments

Gun

I like to think that I fix a lot of problems.  In my job I’m responsible for fixing things that are broken.  And, when all broken things are fixed and I’m waiting for t them to break again, I try and look for patterns, trends and other data that will help me in future situations.

Normally, when we see a trend in a specific condition getting worse, we investigate it, see if the trend is legit, and if so, work to mitigate it.  Understand it.  Fix it.

And then, after we think that we have put in place corrections, we watch it to make sure that what we did is really working.

And if it is…we leave it alone and just let it keep getting better:

Gun violence in America has fallen dramatically over the past two decades, and the number of murders committed with a firearm is down too, though guns are still by far the leading type of crime weapon, according to a new report from the Justice Department.

Gun violence is down.

As for where crime guns came from, the study notes that less than two percent of convicted inmates reported buying their weapons at gun shows or flea markets.

Any talk of this mythical “Gun Show Loophole” is bullshit.

Murders committed with a gun dropped 39 percent to 11,101 in 2011, from a high of 18,253 in 1993, according to the report.

Other crimes committed with guns were down even more sharply — from 1.53 million in 1993 to 467,300 in 2011, a drop of 70 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

What we’re doing is working.  There may be no need to take any further action.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: National

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Wherein Pino Is Official

Posted on April 20, 2013 | 5 comments

I was debating the role of the state with Nickgb when he pointed out a fact that I need to correct:

Man, I think you are the only conservative/republican in the country who feels that marriage ought to be a federal issue

I need to set the record straight.  I got this in the mail just the other day:

Pino Voter ID

I am horribly dismayed that the abbreviation of Libertarian is LIB, however, that being the case, I am officially a Libertarian here in North Carolina.

Perhaps I need to rebrand as Tarheel Purple?

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: North Carolina

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And So Is The Beginning Of The End Of The NFL

Posted on April 19, 2013 | 2 comments

I can’t say I don’t have mixed feelings:

“A Colorado jury has awarded $11.5 million in a lawsuit originally brought against helmet maker Riddell and several high school administrators and football coaches over brain injuries suffered by a teenager in 2008.” While the jury rejected the plaintiff’s claim of design defect, it accepted the theory that the helmet maker should have done more to warn of concussions. “The jury assessed 27 percent of the fault for Rhett Ridolfi’s injuries, making the company responsible for paying $3.1 million of the damages.” Riddell has been hit with a wave of lawsuits from both school and professional football players.

It’s over people.

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Posted in Liberty

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Interesting Thought Experiment Combined With Legal Process

Posted on April 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

scales of justice

So, this story is interesting:

WASHINGTON — Worried the Internal Revenue Service might target you for an audit? You probably should be if you own a small business in one of the wealthy suburbs of Los Angeles.

You might also be wary if you’re a small-business owner in one of dozens of communities near San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta or the District of Columbia.

A new study by the National Taxpayer Advocate used confidential IRS data to show large clusters of potential tax cheats in these five metropolitan areas. The IRS uses the information to target taxpayers for audits.

The taxpayer advocate, Nina Olsen, runs an independent office within the IRS. She got access to the data as part of an effort to learn more about why some taxpayers are more likely to cheat than others.

The study also looked at tax compliance in different industries, and found that people who own construction companies or real estate rental firms may be more likely to fudge their taxes than business owners in other fields.

This whole concept resonates with me.  In my line of work I’m pretty aggressive in trying to sift through data to find root causes and trends.  I get this idea.  On the other hand, is it legal?  Can certain citizens face increased scrutiny, based only on what might be arbitrary profiling?

What is the difference between profiling wealthy citizens in certain industries that live in certain regions with, say, profiling certain people by age, race, nationality and religion?

Or, for a more pertinent subject, profiling citizens in order to reduce gun violence?

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Posted in Crime, Liberty

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Another North Carolina Law On Marriage

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 2 comments

Marriage

The republican dominated legislature here in Raleigh are submitting legislation that speaks to marriage.  However, unlike the vast majority of recent such bills, this one has nothing to do with gay marriage or civil unions.

It has to do with divorce:

Raleigh, N.C. — State lawmakers are considering making divorces harder to get in North Carolina.

Senate Bill 518, dubbed the Healthy Marriage Act, would double the one-year waiting period before a divorce could be granted and would require husband and wife to receive conflict resolution counseling, as well as counseling if they have children. Supporters said they believe the restrictions will help cut the state’s divorce rate.

Now, I don’t think that this action in any way excuses the liberty restricting legislation that has passed regarding gay marriage, but it is interesting to see republicans acting on oft cited criticisms of gay marriage opposition laws.  Namely, divorce of straight couples.

And, like laws restricting the rights of our gay friends, families and citizens, this law suffers the same faults.   Marriage, in the eyes of the state, should be a contractual matter.  And if two people want to enter into such an arrangement, they should be able to.  And, in similar logic, if they want to end said relationship, they ought to be able to do that as well.

Unless, of course, you buy into the liberal version of  the “collective” and reject the notion of “private” relationships.  In which case, if the community feels that marriages are better for society, well, then, perhaps divorce should just be outlawed completely.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: North Carolina

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When Government Agencies Communicate

Posted on April 6, 2013 | 2 comments

Handcuffs

I was over at Poison Your Mind today discussing benefits when I remembered this proposition introduced by republicans here in North Carolina:

Raleigh, N.C. — County Departments of Social Service would be required to conduct criminal background checks on those applying for federal benefits under a bill that cleared the House Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday.

If someone applying for Food and Nutrition Assistance, what many people call food stamps, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which are cash payments, is found to have an outstanding warrant, social service workers would be required to report them to local law enforcement under House Bill 392.

“Local law enforcement and all county agencies should work together to keep the public as safe as possible,” said Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union. He said federal law already prohibits benefits from going to fleeing felons and parole and probation violators.

The fact that this isn’t already the case, that it requires a law to make that conversation takes place, comes from a mindset that entitlement benefits should be extended to as many people as possible in amounts that should have no upper limit and have no brake in place that would conceive of an ending to these benefits.

As I mentioned at PYM, I can acknowledge a contract between the state and the individual.  A contract that says society will take care of you if you take care of society.

This contract, perhaps only implicit, requires an acknowledgement that if you commit crimes against society, that society can take steps to discourage that behavior.

And among those first steps is the denying of charity.

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Posted in Government, Liberty, Politics: National

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Separation Of Church And State

Posted on April 3, 2013 | 6 comments

Prayer

Okay, so, awhile ago I mentioned that North Carolina is dangerously republican:

In the state house?  The republicans not only held serve but they extended their majority.  To the point that they hold a veto proof majority.  In fact, they are so in the majority that the republicans are able to submit constitutional amendments to popular vote without even one democrat agreeing.

Well, another piece of legislation has been proposed that will try to take advantage of this republican advantage:

A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow the state to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the US Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies in North Carolina.

The bill grew out of a federal lawsuit filed last month by the ACLU against the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the board has opened 97% of its meetings since 2007 with explicitly Christian prayers.

Overtly Christian prayers at government meetings are not rare in North Carolina. Since the Republican takeover in 2011, the state Senate chaplain has offered a explicitly Christian invocation virtually every day of session, despite the fact that some senators are not Christian.

I can’t imagine that this bill will pass into law.  In fact, I have no idea what the point of the legislation is about.  North Carolina already has a requirement in our constitution that speaks to religion:

Sec. 8.  Disqualifications for office.

The following persons shall be disqualified for office:

First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.

Serious, under the state constitution, if you deny the existence of God, you are disqualified from holding office.  And, as the article mentions, prayer at meetings is not rare; apparently we do it fairly often.

Again, not sure what the point of the bill is, but it certainly will be interesting to watch.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: North Carolina, Republicans Can Be Leftists Too, States Behaving Badly

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