Guns and booze

One of the OMG arguments attending the new Iowa shall-issue status pits the pure of  heart against the provision allowing concealed and open carry in bars and restaurants. It is not one of the easier areas of the debate.

I do my own drinking unarmed, and I confess I'd be a shade nervous about sharing bar space with an excitable woman packing a belly full of tequila shooters and a Lorcin in her cleavage.

It would be more comforting to be absolutely sure there are no weapons in the joint. (Say, isn't that a unicorn angel watching over us?)

However: I'm less concerned about a  packing citizen who went through the CCW process. He, or she, has a clean background and has been exposed to at least a rudimentary education in firearms safety and responsibility. And if he values his CCW permit,  as almost all of us do, he will be very careful not to abuse it.

The real worry is the thug with a rap sheet who walks in with a bad attitude and a stolen Glock in his boot.  No change in the CCW law, or any law, will deter him because he is a criminal, and criminals, by definition, flip the bird at laws.

Just for the record, and for what it's worth, the new law allows you to have a drink or two while carrying, but when you hit .08 blood booze the permission stops. 

  

Say, while he's up there schmoozing with Immelt, shouldn't the president bow to an honorable chapter in  General Motors history?

Shouldn't he publicly thank the company for its millions of short-barrel, high-cap, assault weapons?

Per capita, the great divisor

That previous post was, of course, based on today's news-cycle story as defined by Mr. Gibbs. Obama is heading for upstate New York to huff his pride in General Electric's $755 million contract with the Chinese.

The deal has been years in the making,  but never mind that. If a little unearned  credit sticks to His Obamaness, well,  heck, that's okay with him, 2012-wise.

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A five-buck Chinese calculator is  the most useful device in existence for analyzing political rhetoric. For instance, if Mr. Obama used one to divide  $755 million by 308 million, he would discover the largess he sorta created amounts to $2.45 for every man, woman, and child in America.  (Assuming of course that the whole shebang is pure profit.)

I don't know about you, but, by cracky, my Escalade is gonna be a white one.

Barry's neighborhood organization v.2

America's most successful organizer of neighborhoods south of the Blackstone Hotel may be laying the groundwork for a career move. Up until Mayor Daly gave him permission to be a U.S. senator, HIs Obamaness  made a living on street corners, haranguing  the welfare class to stick it to Duh Man.

His priority seems to be shifting to making sure Duh Man loves him, maybe even enough to reserve a nicely upholstered chair for him somewhere in the Wall and Broad neighborhood upon his retirement from government service, in, one hopes, 2012.

He has appointed General Electric Boss Jeff Immelt to head up a new federal Chablis klatch called the "Council on Jobs and Competitiveness."

This replaces the old Obama  Economic Recovery Advisory Board, whose demise remains unlamented even among the 769 Americans who were aware of its existence. (This number includes the 466 payrollers who earned their livings typing memos and pouring wine for said council.)


AP paraphrases Obama's thought processes this way: "Obama, in a statement after midnight, said the council's mission will be to help generate ideas from the private sector to speed up economic growth and promote American competitiveness."


(When I say dimwitted things, I try to do it in the wee hours, too, Mr.President.  So I do not criticize your timing.)


Well, I probably won't be appointed to the council, but I generated an idea anyway, andI hope it's okay with you if I say it:  Mr. President,  call your favorite congresspersons and economic advisers and invite them on a pleasant golf vacation, preferably at that nice Ulan Batar course. Check your voice mail every couple of months. If we need y'all, we'll let you know.


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The old council held the usual conglomeration of successful union bone crunchers and government has-beens, but it was dominated by NGO guys who made their bones running conglomerates with hefty government contracts and/or selling one another repos to protect their Singapore pickle-futures positions.


It's a lock that similar parasites will run the new council, which is a shame. Because among all the names with even the remotest chance of getting to stir their coffee with White House spoons,  not one will have the balls to address America's First Orator thusly.


"Sir, like most of Washington's stupid meddling, this council and -- more to the point -- its premise are a bull on Ex-Lax.  Governments don't create jobs. Governments create positions for slugs and thugs who get off on extorting citizen's honestly earned wealth, then (a) passing it  around among themselves and (b) using the residue to buy voting blocks. Me? I just discovered my parents were married, so I quit."


All by itself, that wouldn't be enough to make it morning in American, but it would reveal a tinge of orange just peeking over the eastern horizon.


And if that ain't professor Von Mises' own ever-lovin' truth I'll kiss Geithner's inflationary arse at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and give you a full day to announce the festivities to all your Acorn buddies.