Happy New Year to all.
We hope you all have a Merry Christmas.
A Canadian newspaper has published an article about the benefits Wal-Mart, and generalized to business/commerce in general. They humorously compare the achievements and benefits of Wal-Mart to Nobel Prize winners and Wal-Mart is impressive in the comparison.
Best quote: “The best defense against poverty is a job.”
Back in June we wrote a post about the possible rule change on carrying a weapon in National Parks. As you may remember, National Forests have long had a rule allowing concealed carry if you can legally carry in the state. National Parks just had a general ban, with only some narrow exceptions for hunting in certain places at certain times. Many National Parks are in cities any you may cross into one just driving down the street. For example, you might be driving down Monroe Dr./Boulevard Dr. from Piedmont Park to Grant Park on a nice sunny afternoon and little do you know, but you’ve just entered Martin Luthor King Jr. National Park. If you had a weapon, you could be in some serious trouble. At the other extreme, there are National Parks encompassing vast areas of wilderness (Wrangell-St. Elias is over 13,000 square miles and 20 are over 2000 square miles) where the nearest ranger may be several hundred miles away. You may be unlikely to run into a criminal there, but that will be of little comfort to you if you do and were required to be unarmed.
Thankfully, things are different now. The National Park Service and the Department of the Interior have just published the new Final Rule (PDF), under which you can now carry in National Parks to the same extent that you can carry in the state. The original proposed rule had an ambiguous clause referring to “similar lands,” which was never defined. Our earlier post asked that you comment on this proposed rule and support it but ask that the similar lands requirement be stricken. If you wrote in, pat yourself on the back because they removed that clause. You can also thank the 51 US Senators that wrote to the Department of the Interior to request this change, and VCDL for getting the ball rolling on this one. The NRA, our own GeorgiaCarry.org, and other gun rights organizations were also instrumental in getting the rule change passed, so thanks to all of them, too. And thanks to all of you who wrote positive comments on the proposed rule change this summer!
Here’s the DOI Press Release.
Take this Civics Literacy Quiz and see how you do. Of 2,508 Americans who were randomly selected to take the quiz, only 29% passed. This is especially bad since the questions are 4-way multiple choice, so you essentially get 25% by guessing, and by their standards you only need 60% correct to “pass.”
You may want to go take the quiz before reading further, as there are some answers below.
Read the complete article »
Our local Atlanta CBS affiliate did a nice segment on the increasing number of women arming themselves for their own protection. It’s actually a very good segment–they didn’t even include the usually obligatory, “Gun control groups say…,” you’ll put your eye out or whatever.
It doesn’t seem to allow embedding, so you’ll have to click through to CBS46.com for the video. If you like it, consider sending Tony McNary a nice note.
HowObamaGotElected.com has produced a video of voters taken on election day, in which various voters are asked questions about the candidates.
On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not.
The video would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and scary. To be fair, there’s no way of knowing if he really interviewed 120 and picked the 12 that best made the point he was trying to express. He did have Zogby perform a poll that seems to have confirmed his results. He also didn’t ask similar questions of McCain supporters, so we don’t know if they’re by and large equally uninformed. To find out for yourself: ask random people you run into these questions.
The public seems to believe that the current economic problems are primarily the Republicans doing, and that is what swung the election, according to exit polls. Read John Lott’s newest piece published at FoxNews.com. He writes about various Democrat-pushed policies that directly led to the current economic problems.
There are two additional issues not brought up by Dr. Lott. He notes that the increase in the unemployment rate was (partly) caused by an increase in the length of unemployment benefits pushed by the Democrats. It also directly followed an increase in the minimum wage. When the hourly rate for labor increases above the value of that labor, the price becomes too high and the labor is not purchased–that is, someone loses their job. It’s not limited to workers making the minimum wage, though. Many labor contracts are written with wages specified as a factor of minimum wage (this job pays 2.3 times minimum wage, that job pays 6.7 times minimum wage). A minimum wage hike means higher pay for lots of people (hurrah!), but some of those workers won’t be worth keeping at the new higher wage (oops!). Determining how much of the increase in the unemployment rate was a function of government mandated higher wages and how much was extended government incentive to remain unemployed would take a great deal of data I don’t have and probably some additional statistics courses. But both were clearly factors, and both were Democrat-pushed policies.
Dr. Lott described the problems with the mortgage industry and the Democrats’ policies that were behind those problems, and he notes that the inherent problems didn’t manifest so long as home prices continued to rise. But what lead to the smaller downturn earlier this year, that led to the slowdown in the rise in home prices, that led to the mortgage meltdown? Two closely related things: higher fuel prices and higher food prices. Higher fuel prices were part of the reason for higher food prices–you have to run tractors to farm the food and trucks, ships, and trains to move it to market. The other factor was government subsidies for, and mandated use of, ethanol. Government subsidies and mandated use made it more profitable to grow crops for ethanol instead of food for people, or food for animals that become food for people. That meant less food grown for people, which meant higher prices for that food. Unfortunately, while ethanol removed a large quantity of food from the market, it didn’t introduce a similarly large amount of fuel into the market. That’s because ethanol isn’t a very efficient way to produce fuel. It is considered more “green” and “renewable” though, which is why it was so popular with the Democrats. But real increases to the energy supply could have been realized by drilling for oil in the United States, and by building nuclear power plants. Oil drilling has been widely opposed by the Democrats since the seventies, although to be fair, enough Republicans opposed it during their majority that with the Democrats solid opposition it never went anywhere. Nuclear power could have helped by freeing up more natural gas for taxis and municipal vehicles and promoting coal to petro conversion technology by reducing the market for coal for electricity. Nuclear power is another big Democrat no-no.
The mortgage problem would still have been looming, but perhaps without food and fuel prices pushing us over the tipping point we might have had time to get enough Democrats on board with minor corrections to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and averted the current crisis. Well, probably there would have been no convincing them–after all, they still deny any responsibility. At any rate, Dr. Lott’s piece is well worth a good read.
To my father, to Carri, and all the rest of you. Thank you.
In response to the GeorgiaCarry.org lawsuit, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association has repealed their ban on guns in the park. Here is the revised ordinance (PDF). The new ordinance applies only to those licensed to carry and contains a strange provision: that one who is carrying, “notifies Park Police as soon as possible upon entering the Park.” That does not mean, however, that you should pull out your gun, wave it around, and shout, “I have a gun! I have a gun!” as soon as you enter the park. 
GCO initiated the lawsuit because under the state preemption law, only the state legislature can regulate guns, not a state authority like the SMMA. Since the SMMA is continuing to regulate with this strange and awkward notification provision, I’d say it’s a good bet the lawsuit will continue.
GeorgiaCarry.org has done, and is continuing to do a lot of good for Georgia gun owners. If you aren’t a member yet, Join Now!
Will there ever be another Republican who can articulate these principles as clearly and convincingly?
H/T: John Lott.
Subject: Noise Complaint at Luke Air Force Base
Luke AFB is west of Phoenix and is rapidly being surrounded by civilization
that complains about the noise from the base and its planes, forgetting that
it was there long before they were.
A certain Lieutenant Colonel at Luke AFB deserves a big pat on the back.
Apparently, an individual who lives somewhere near Luke AFB wrote the local
paper complaining about a group of F-16s that disturbed his/her day at the
mall.
When that individual read the response from a Luke AFB officer, it must have
stung quite a bit.
The complaint:
‘Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the
morning air show? Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 A.M, a tight formation
of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over
Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune! Do the Tom
Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to
impress the cashiers at Mervyns early bird special? Any response would be
appreciated.
The response:
Regarding ‘A wake-up call from Luke’s jets’ on 15 June 2008, precisely
09:12, a perfectly-timed four- ship fly by of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter
Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt. Jeremy
Fresques.
Capt. Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke
Air Force Base and was killed in Iraq on 30 May 2008 , Memorial Day.
At 0900, his family and friends gathered at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun
City to mourn the loss of a husband, son and friend.
Based on the letter writer’s recount of the fly by, and because of the jet
noise, I’m sure you didn’t hear the rifle salute, the playing of taps, or
my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their
son’s flag on behalf of the president of the United States and all those
veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have
endured.
A four-ship fly by is a display of respect the Air Force gives to those who
give their lives in defense of freedom.
We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously; on 15 June what
the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their
respects.
The letter writer asks, ‘Whom do we thank for the morning air show? The 56th
Fighter Wing will make the call for you, and forward your thanks to the
widow and parents of Capt Fresques, and we will thank them for you, for it
was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their
lives.
Only 2 defining forces have ever offered to die for you…..Jesus Christ and
the American soldier.
One died for your soul; the other for your freedom
Lt. Col. Grant L. Rosensteel, Jr.
USAF
Check out this new trailer for the documentary film An Inconvenient Tax.
I posted this link to them a while ago. The film is produced by acquaintances of ours here in Atlanta. I strongly urge you to go check them out.
…that Barack Obama will help the economy. The Dow has dropped 10% since Tuesday evening when it became apparent that he won–just under 500 points each day. I know it comes as a shock to most voters, but raising taxes on businesses and highly productive people isn’t a plan that will lead to a growing economy. I just hope all those evil corporations finally paying their fair share will still be able to afford to buy my company’s products. If not, my income will definitely take a cut, but hey, so will my taxes! Maybe that’s the secret ingredient to Obama’s recipe to lower taxes for 95% of us?!
UPDATE: See the WSJ’s A Barack Market for more.
And thank you very much, President Bush.
