Pointman’s Page

Governor Daniels still has a fair amount of work to do this session but I’m most interested in seeing him sign onto HB 1065. If you’re so inclined it probably wouldn’t hurt to drop him a note of encouragement.

Though Governor Daniels is of the “compassionate conservative” brand of Republican Indiana could have done far worse and I often wonder if the direction of the Nation today would be different would Daniels stayed with the Bush administration. But seeing where the Nation as a whole has gone since 2006 I am thankful to have Governor Daniels where he is - keeping Indiana solvent and functioning.

There has been intimations of Mitch for Prez and while I can think of better candidates I can also think of worse candidates as well. HB1065 is a chance for the Governor to distance himself from his moderate proclivities and stand with the People of Indiana. If he does have further political aspirations I can assure you if he fails this test Hoosiers have a long memory, just ask Dan Coats.

People not intimately familiar with the activist side of shooting often ask why gun owners seem mad about what they perceive vague threats to our rights. That conversation can take hours and a lot of references… but now thanks to Joe Huffman all we have to do is tell them to go read Why gun owners are angry.

It looks like any toy gun with a metal barrel is the ATFE’s target as “machine guns”. I’m not exactly an AirSoft fan but I see their charm. Remember that these toys were designed by a people who are not allowed to own real guns, these are their substitutes….

With the President being the unofficial firearm Salesman of the Year we hear how he’s not actually done anything in the direction of gun rights. But this is HIS department so add this to the UN firearms treaty and apparently he IS moving against American gun owners. Though I never expected he’d come through the legislative front door anyway.

I know I mostly post about politics, motorcycles and firearms but the part of my life that pays for those things I’m a technology guy. It’s not too often I do much code work with other things being more entertaining but of late a friend brought the project FullCalendar to my attention as he integrated it into our product. It didn’t take much looking at it to see I had to pass this one on….

If our economy is still in the tank yet gas is still $2.75/gallon - what does that portend when the economy recovers?

Following up on getting the “guns in your car” bill through to the governor there are 2 on The Indiana Law Blog (worth a bookmark btw). The first ran on March 6th and a follow up on March 8th following a work place shooting up in Portage Indiana which opponents are attempting to use to dissuade Governor Mitch from signing the law after it passed with considerable bipartisan support in both Indiana houses.

On these I have two points as the Indiana Law Blog tends to report only and not persuade or dissuade on the issues.

First, the shooting in Portage is an example of the exact opposite of what the opponents are pushing. The gun in your car bill is not law yet and workforce development offices are posted no firearms. Yet this person brought a firearm into the offices….

Second, this issue has the potential of determining Governor Mitch’s “creds” in the Hoosier shooting community. Fail this one and any aspirations of higher office (*cough* *cough* *president* ) may prove to be very short lived.

The liberals/progressives/nutcases are always harping on war spending and a way to tell Republicans to shut up already when they oppose yet more spending. Of course this is a diversion to stop opposition to their political roadmap of turning America into a European style Socialist State.

But back to spending money… we know where there is a large population of criminals soaking up our tax dollars and they’re brushing those expenses, which dwarf a more immediate problem of why the USA is bankrupt.

Now before someone comes and calls me a “nativist” or other such crap consider this. If you want to let more people from
into the United States, that’s fine - go through the legislative process and up the quotas for that nation. I’m fine with that. There are a set of rules by which people can come here and be Americans such as having a marketable skill, not being a carrier of a contagious disease, and not being a terrorist… these must stay in play.

I cannot believe I’m linking to them but even the Daily Kos sees Hostettler as the man to beat in the coming race to fill Evan Bayh’s senate seat. They even instructs their minions to remember to “…root for Coats in the GOP primary”.

Coats’ remember is the seat Bayh took, who now wants it back, but who hasn’t lived in Indiana since he retired after stabbing Indiana gun owners in the back in a 1994 vote on Clinton’s “crime bill” which banned semi automatic weapons and magazines over 10 rounds for ten years in this country.

So much for that NRA sponsored Sportsmen for Coats bumper sticker so many of us sported for years….

As for “root for Coats” this from the people who were largely responsible for handing us McCain as a candidate by crossing over in the early primaries. The same who whined incessantly when the Republicans turned the tide and tried to stick them with Hillary…. I rather like the idea of closed primaries…. it is the height of stupidity to allow your opposition to stick you with the candidate they believe they can more easily defeat.

Anyway… John Hostettler for U.S. Senate!

Tam points to an Indiana Supreme Court ruling which essentially means the presence of a weapon alone is not probable cause that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed.

Reading the full decision I believe the Court found a good balance between individual rights and officer safety. Could it be better? Sure, but it is realistic and a reasonably simple litmus test to apply to a situation. The ruling isn’t that long so if you carry a firearm go read it.

It seems that in Oregon they will now send the swat team after you just because someone THINKS you might be CONTEMPLATING something illegal. It is a dangerous precedent and if it doesn’t frighten you then then I refer you to this.

“If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
– Samuel Adams

I guess you could say he didn’t see it coming….

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.”

–James Madison, letter to Edmund Pendleton, 1792

It turns out that the only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.

– Cornered Cat’s Kathy Jackson

Looks like Indiana Dems are trying to sink HB 1065, the Emergency Powers and Parking Lots today. Why is anyone surprised? Democrats always scream “democracy! democracy!” until they don’t like the results…

A little history from the Great Communicator…

I initially passed over the article about the woman who’s Love Handles Stopped a bullet and saved her life until I saw a news program where she was talking about in on video, how she thought she ought to loose weight until this happened and now she’s not going to try to loose weight… At that point the only comment I had was, I wonder if she realized that if those “love handles” hadn’t been there the bullet may have missed her altogether? Hm…

I find it downright comical that one of the cities who’s economy is most damaged by illegal immigration would decide to go after unlicensed dogs rather than “undocumented” people. So what are they going to do with “unlicensed” dogs owned by “undocumented” people? Will they get a free visit to the vet, a free bag of dog chow and a new dog house?

First off its nice to see “scientists” and the media finally admitting there even is a lull in warming and that it started, not last year, but in 1998.. Since in 1979-80 they were still teaching kids about the coming Ice Age that means there was only 20 years of warming? Well, not really if you look at the data… but even giving them that 20 years what is 20 years? Insignificant….

“We’ve not put our finger precisely on what has changed,” Knight said. “(But) If you add all these things together … there’s nothing really there to challenge the idea that there’s going to be large warming in the 21st century.”

Emphasis mine… so to believe Mr. Knight, they don’t know why the weather isn’t cooperating with their models but that doesn’t mean the models are wrong…

They’ve pretty much thrown the entire basis of science out the window. But then when has this not been the case with what I’ll now label “Big Science”…. Any grade school kid can show you a 1/2 dozen major scientific discoveries by the lone man going against the establishment - the heretics if you will.

Yet another example of why McCain didn’t win is the Dietary Supplement Regulatory Bill. McCain, a RINO on a good day, also stands as a touchstone on who in politics, especially Republican politics, got the message in 2009. Sadly at the national level few of them have as demonstrated by their rallying around McCain in his bid to retain his Senate seat.

And bills such as this only serves as another example of a long line of examples illustrating that McCain and his ilk need to find a new line of work. Fortunately the voters seem to be realizing that.

Years ago I started recommending Avast anti-virus for non-business home users. Today Avast is still a good product which I still highly recommend. But an relative new kid on the block, or more accurately new product, has taken over my most recommended free anti-virus, Panda Security’s Cloud Antivirus….

Panda Security is by no means a “new kid” and I’ve been a reseller and devote since the late 90’s. But their new, free “Cloud” product is something new and while not revolutionary, at least evolutionary….

I especially recommend it on systems already strained for resources.

Reflecting on Bayh’s stepping aside I realized the whole point of doing it so last minute was to put the power of nominating his replacement directly with the party rather than allowing the people their choice in the primaries. At this late date there simply isn’t anyone who can muster the signatures to get onto the primary ballots - seeing as those signatures are due today.

Bayh made sure there is no possibility of a popular local whom they cannot control taking the seat. The state party will get to decide who to put up in November…

Thinking about that brought to mind Coat’s surprise announcement. Heck Coats hasn’t lived in Indiana since he turned his seat over to Evan Bayh. But now he wants it back. Or does he?

My suspicion is the RNC was afraid of gaining a seat but one they cannot control and most of the primary candidates are not ones who will kowtow to the RNC. The most notable of which is John Hostettler who openly opposed President Bush and his policies including voting against going into Iraq, No Child and many others.

There is a lot of talk of the “Tea Party” movement and I think that is partly what the RNC fears as much as the DNC. If the RNC had gotten the message with President Obama’s victory the tea party people would be supporting the Republican national party again. But the RNC didn’t get it and have stuck to that peculiar brand of populist “compassionate conservatism” which may have won President Bush 2 elections but could carry the party no further as middle America Republicans realized how distant that ideology truly is from the classic liberalism of libertarian minded Christian conservatives.

Dan Coats is here to keep Indiana in the RNC’s pocket….

U. S. Senator Evan Bayh plans to announce he will not seek a 3rd term in the U.S. Senate. A press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. this afternoon in Indianapolis.

My money is that Senator Bayh realized he was toast… But it is unfortunate as by not running, and he’s not alone here, we can’t watch and cheer as he goes down in flames in November’s election.

Seems a good time to plug John Hostettler for Senate!

I am constantly amazed at what diverse interests exist on the internet…

Remember all that bitching and whining about how evil Bush was for tapping cell phone conversations of citizens who happen to call a terrorist? If the Administration gets their way you won’t have to be talking to a terrorist for them to track you. You just need a cell phone.

A am planning some spring trips and wondered what the temperature averages are for select destinations. I am a weather.com junkie but beyond “next month” the information I needed isnt’ there - or at least I cannot find it. Turning to Google I found Weatherbase which lets me find the normal mix of data (average, average high, average low, record high, record low, etc) by the month for major cities around the world.

I’d probably better take into account the 5 to 10 degrees below normal patten we’ve been seeing for the past year or two.