All is not doom and gloom, though you may think so when you buy cereal or tank up your car. The value of the dollar is making U.S. products more competitive and bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.. Not that the workers will be able to afford the lifestyle they once could.

Only time will tell if we find the right balance. But if we don’t it probably won’t matter much, we’ll be too busy finding 3rd jobs to pay the electric bill and fill up the car.

As is their custom for holidays Direct Line offered the VTXOA members a 10% discount on almost everything they sell in honor of Independence Day. I’m hitting 12k on my Avon Venom’s, and the next sale not being until Labor Day, and I have some gift certificates to spend. So I took advantage of the sale to buy a new Avon Cobra rear.

Only I didn’t order the Avon Cobra but accidentally ordered the Avon Venom. The down side to tabbed browsing… Anyway, not that there is a thing wrong with the Venom. Baring the existence of the new Cobra model I would have ordered the Venom anyway.

But I followed up by phone a few moments ago to verify the certificates were correctly applied. And not only had the coupons been applied correctly by my simply noting them in the order notes, but they corrected my mistake and I’ll be getting the Cobra tire, too. And still with the holiday discount….

All in less than 3 minutes on the phone.

—Calvin Coolidge

What an idiot. Democrats in control of the House for the past almost 2 years. Gasoline at $2.00 then, its at $4.15 now. And with the attitude Harry Reid displays in the video you know it will only get worse since their plan is to push the price of gasoline out of the reach of “the masses” they so claim to be working for. Liars all. Marxists all.

“That statement was obviously an inartful attempt to explain the Senator’s consistent position”

Huh?

Untwist that, especially the “consistent position” portion, and I get:

Obama: “the ban is Constitutional”

Campaign: “that’s putting it in-artfully”

Obama: “OK, the District of Columbia’s ban on law abiding citizens owning firearms for the protection of themselves, their family and their property is Constitutional. Is that better?”

Yeah….

I am eager to read Ben Smith’s take but alas website is currently overloaded…

On the polar opposite side of the political spectrum on everything else, my favorite Progressive Sam Smith weighs in with positive comments on the Courting getting something right. Sam even includes a nice back story that would make most any Conservative Gun Nut proud were it not for comparing the gun ban to banning drugs…

“For the first time in the history of our Republic, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was and is an individual right as intended by our Founding Fathers,” McCain said in a statement.

.

So John McCain has already latched onto the ruling as a campaign issue. That ought to bring a few of the disenchanted conservatives back to the party though I don’t know if its enough considering the man’s history of excessive moderation.

As for the ramifications the anti-gunners fear it looks like they’re coming to pass as I’d hoped. The National Rifle Association has already put some of those into motion:

“I consider this the opening salvo in a step-by-step process of providing relief for law-abiding Americans everywhere that have been deprived of this freedom,” he said.

LaPierre told Fox News the NRA is filing lawsuits in Chicago, San Francisco and other cities, vowing the organization “will not rest until individuals everywhere have this freedom.”

Interesting that Chicago comes up twice here, likely as they are among not only the highest crime rates but also the more draconian gun laws. So McCain is certainly in a position to take advantage of that even past his statement so far. He could actually follow through, as President, more than the courts did, in recognising what the Second Amendment truly is and was meant to me: The right to defend yourself against threats to your Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness” to especially include a tyrannical government.

As the Supremes have once used the weapons legality litmus of “serves a legitimate military purpose” in 1939 I am looking forward to digging into the full text of this ruling to see how these rulings nearly 70 years apart jibe with each other.

More coverage here and here

This is going to be like the recent Taser ruling and I expect the consequences to be pretty immediate. If a parent has no expectation of real justice they’re much more likely to take matters into their own hands.

This ruling also dampens my optimism on their 2nd Amendment ruling due today.