H.L. Mencken on Gun (and everything else) Control

Each year about this time,  the Moon of the Shrunken Scrotum, I tend to stay  in my lodge,  near the fire, and spend time with the old writings. I owe these authors. Without them I would be someone else.

This morning it is H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), one of my primary sources on 21st Century politics. Here he discloses one of the reasons we veer so close to post-constitutional government and pixie dust economics.

He is discussing American literature as it existed in the earliest years of the 20th  Century. It was ponderous stuff requiring close attention and patience, but Mencken thought it was important. Or would have been if enough people paid attention. He wasn't optimistic about that.

"In the arts, as in the concerns of every day, the  American seeks escape from the insoluble  by pretending it is solved. A comfortable phrase is what he craves beyond all things...".

Gun Control and Language Control

Another parallelism, further demonstrating the increasing uselessness of the English language as a tool for expressing logical thought processes:

Semi-automatic assault weapon

Horse-drawn automobile
'

Feinstein in black and white

Here is the text of Barbara's bill banning some guns that look like assault weapons:


http://www.scribd.com/doc/122212105/S-150

it isn't as long as it first appears. Most of its bulk is a list of guns which the government will permit you to own. (Think about that for a minute or two.)

For instance, if you want a replica of a .50-70 Sharps, why, that's just fine with Babs.

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Edit: Blogger won't accept this as a hot link. Cut and paste works.

In case you've been camping on Planet Whezix, we're price-rationing ammunition lately. And what a price.

Able's is one of the large sellers, and a search of "available products only"  for .22 long rifle gives you ten choices. No bulk packages, and the most economical 50-round box is Fiocchi subsonic at $12.95. Or 25-point-9 cents per round. Plus S and H.

It's the market at work, and the market will correct itself. It may take a while.  And Mr. Ammo Mill might get a friendly whisper from Mommy Dotgov that increasing the supply will be considered an unfriendly and even antisocial act. Then it will take longer.

The onsite stash of bunny rounds is reasonably healthy, and  no one living around here is about to buy much .22 at prevailing prices.  One fella, though, is on his way to WalMart to see if econopacks of 12 gauge are still on the shelves at no more than 1 1/2 x  the October price. If so he'll pick up a few more. If he does he'll write  Joe "Shotgun" Biden in hopes of getting a nice attaboy letter back.