wooly bugger

Frankly, this is the worst I've seen in my politically aware life. Both at the Federal and State level. For you old-timers, what was it like in the stagflation early '70s? From my history books, that's the last time I can imagine things felt this way. It's not the government that frightens me. It's the people who think it's all good, and as long as they mind their own business, they'll be fine, and they'll just keep voting for more of the same. To reverse Michelle Obama's famous statement, "for the first time in my life, I'm ashamed to be an American."

Good for you. I only wish I had a subscription to cancel.

" The judge also relied on the regulations defining "justifiable need" to mean "urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun." See N.J.A.C. 13:54- 2.4(d). Citing In re Preis, 118 N.J. 564 (1990), he explained "[g]eneralized fears for personal safety are inadequate, as is the need to protect property alone."" So, based on the definition above, what if you are a woman who has just been raped by your boyfriend, who continues to menace you at work and at home? You are living on minimum wage, so obviously cannot afford a Bloomberg-style entourage of armed guards, and you do not have any other job offers, besides the one where you work. So, your boyfriend knows exactly where to find you. Does that constitute "justifiable need?" There must be cases where such women have applied and been denied. That might be a more sympathetic case and would be interesting to see what judicial gymnastics would be required to get around it. I can already guess. Have a policeman meet her at work every day and escort her to a new secret home while watching for a tail, and doing the same for her kids, taking a circuitous route home, so the creep can't follow them home from school to find out where they live. Oh, and no play dates for the kids. Or maybe he'll just tell her to vomit and piss herself next time.

I wonder if our local mayors could be an ally against the 5 year FID bill. Please see what I just wrote. Before you pounce on me for not "taking a stand," understand that I live in an extremely liberal town, and if I make this into anything more than a purely logistical issue, ears will automatically turn off. I want to bring to your attention a bill that has just passed the state assembly. This is A3772, which would require a new design for firearm purchase ID cards (FPID.) The bill would require that all current holders reapply for the new card within two years and then reapply again every five years thereafter. In addition, all police departments will presumably need to purchase new equipment to photograph applicants and process IDs. In the current state, the card is valid unless a holder becomes ineligible, in which case it must be turned in. Even if it is illegally kept, the card number is flagged, so that if it is used in an attempted purchase, the user will be arrested. I bring this to you not as a policy issue (although I'd be happy to discuss that if you'd like,) but simply as a logistical issue with immediate implications for our township police department. Police departments across the state are heavily strained in keeping up with just the initial applications. These are required by law to be completed within 30 days, but 6-9 month wait periods are routine and have even resulted in lawsuits. The process is quite comprehensive, involving fingerprinting, contacting character references, and background checks of criminal and mental health records. Under the current bill, a "renewal" has all the requirements of a full application. So, given approximately 1 million FPID holders in the state, you can imagine what will happen if, next year, 500,000 current holders reapply statewide, the same number the year after, and then 200,000 apply every year after that. I would ask that you consider working with our police chief to monitor this legislation to be sure that if it passes, it does so in a form that achieves its public safety goals without posing an undue burden on township resources.

OK, this is way off topic, but how do you store your gas? Even with preservative, I'm afraid to have it lying around too long, so before big storms, I've been buying 5-10 gallons and then just pouring it into my car after the storm passes.

Irene was definitely the wake up call for me. Days with no lights, no power, no cell phone reception, and lots of neighbors having fled the neighborhood. Anyone who wanted could have come though a window and taken his time doing whatever he wanted. Amazing that people still think we should just outsource all of our security to the police.

I definitely can't watch it. The sight of his skeletal face literally makes me nauseous. I couldn't look at the NYT homepage for weeks, because the articles about the kids would make me cry. I keep telling myself, some small version of this this happens in Newark and Camden every week, but somehow it doesn't make it better.

If I used FB, I'd reply to his TWL post that if it had been around 20 years ago, he'd be on it.

I just checked. Awww, he looks like a friendly teddy bear.

Having just educated a number of hunters at my club last week, I can tell you that apathy and lack of information are our biggest concerns. These are easily overcome, although it's a battle to get them to do the heavy lifting of writing and calling. Most hunters are not active in online forums and do not carefully read every "common sense" bill proposed and think about the (un)indended consequences. They just see "AWB" and assume it doesn't apply. In their recent triumphalism, the antis have shown their hand more clearly than ever, which helps us to show hunters how even their Remington 1100s may be next. 1) AWB: Did anyone see Ted Cruz's masterful demonstration in the senate hearing? He put up a picture of a Remington 750, then held up a piece of plastic, and explained how that turns a popular hunting rifle into an assault weapon. I always wondered how antis could miss this. Until I read a recent article talking about how 2000+ guns are getting through a "loophole" in the Feinstein bill. They pointed out the banned version of the Ruger Mini-14 and were outraged that the standard model is still legal. So, by getting people to accept that AWBs are evil, they turn our argument on its head and use it to reach the next step in their agenda: if certain semi-autos are illegal, then just removing a couple of cosmetic features is a devious workaround which must be stopped. This whole strategy is a brilliant two step manipulation of the public to get them to accept something they wouldn't accept all at once. Namely, to ban the Remington 750. 2) Two pieces of recent rhetoric: Obama telling people they can "keep their revolver for self defense" and Biden's idiocy about a double barrel shotgun. This isn't stupidity, it's their way of gradually dumbing down the definition of what's reasonable for self defense to exclude semi-autos. As evidence of how well this is working, I have had multiple "friends" ask me, in hushed tones, if I own a "semi-automatic." Once I say yes, it doesn't matter how I try to explain, their ears close and their eyes glaze over. Just yesterday, I was explaining to someone how it's important sometimes to get a quick followup shot at a pheasant, and her reply was, "I thought hunting was supposed to be a sport."

Here's a good meeting for us to attend. If it's anything like the SAFE hearings, we may actually have a chance for rational discussion. I'm going and encourage others as well. Morristown Councilwoman Alison Deeb has organized a panel discussion in response to NJ SAFE, Governor Christie’s Task Force on gun violence, drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, violence in society and school safety. The panel discussion will be held on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Morris County Library in Whippany, New Jersey. This panel discussion is not commissioned by the State of New Jersey or NJ SAFE but hopes to give input into that process. The expert panel includes: L. Michelle Borden, LCSW, DRCC, Chief Operating Officer, NewBridge Services, Inc.; Maurice Elias, PhD, Rutgers Professor and Expert on Youth Social Development; Detective/SSI Keisha Higgs, Community Affairs Unit, Morris County Prosecutor’s Office; Louis Schwarcz, MA, President & CEO, Mental Health Association of Morris County; Peter J. Tamburro, Jr., Secondary School Educator and Speaker on the Constitution and Bill of Rights; and David Walker, Executive Director, Neighborhood House. Robert W. Collins, Mayor of Kinnelon, will moderate the panel. The councilwoman’s effort has not been commissioned by the State of New Jersey or NJ SAFE but the panel hopes to respond to and give input to that process. The NJ SAFE task force was commissioned by Governor Christie on January 17, 2013. The task force has 60 days to submit their recommendations.

OK, submit to the Senate then, and get it through Sweeney.

Good for him. My second choice after moving to America is moving to Hunterdon. That's where I hunt, and it's beautiful. Once, after a hunt successful hunt, with a little blood on my camouflage clothes, I went to the grocery store and had a nice long chat with the elderly gentleman manning the cashier. In my current home in Essex, they'd probably call the police.

OK, not a waste of time, but right now, displacing Cryan by any means is a HUGE win. I'd rather take a 10% chance of replacing him by a known challenger than a 2% chance of replacing him by a dark horse libertarian. Given 33% Hispanic and 22% black composition of his district, I think we have a much better chance of fighting him with a Hispanic challenger with a typical Democrat platform. To overgeneralize, blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented among libertarians. Even if the replacement isn't idealogically one of us, he'll know who butters his bread, and anything will be better than Cryan. I still don't know what Cryan did with the $1MM he raised in the last election. Might be an interesting investigation....

Break whose bank? Paralyzing the government is sounding pretty good right now.

Yes, that was my pipe dream expressed in another thread. Imagine that goes to court, and the court decides that even before the new law, PDs couldn't do it in 30 days so rules that state has to do away with FID altogether, because it's redundant with NICS. My guess is they'll amend to give us more than 2 years, which will just kick the constitutional can down the road, because without massive infrastructure investment, there's no way PDs can handle 20% of FID holders reapplying every year.

The only thing I would add is, unless you have an FID, you'd better make a bee line back to your house or a range, or you'll be in illegal possession of a firearm and spend 7 years in prison. So, get your McDonalds in PA.

The one I dread most is the every 5 year reapplication. It's bad enough to go through it once. The way it's now written, everyone will have to switch over within 2 years. That's 500k applications per year.

Exactly. I wish they would use petition software that doesn't put barriers in the way.

Great idea. Don't forget Scott Bach. Anyone close enough to these guys to suggest it and maybe smooth the process?

Ok, I've emailed MPC with the suggestion. Can others target the other pro-gun assemblymen and senators. I understand that these are unlikely to get through Oliver, but maybe Sweeney will be more reasonable? I don't know if Oliver is capable of shame, but with the right educational campaign, we can make it very uncomfortable for her constituents. Writing bills from scratch is a lot of work. Fortunately, Cryan has shown that's unnecessary. Just copy and paste from other states. I'll start looking for promising legislation in other states and see if we can get it introduced.

It hasn't been specified yet.

Moshiach now! Too bad it's in the middle of the day. I'm guessing it will be a lot of rich housewives wringing their hands.

To quote the poet Eminem: When a dude's gettin bullied and shoots up his school And they blame it on Marilyn (on Marilyn)... and the heroin Where were the parents at? And look where it's at Middle America, now it's a tragedy Now it's so sad to see, an upper class ci-ty Havin this happenin (this happenin)...

As much as I mistrust our government, no, I don't think they would go that far. And how would they have gotten to the shooter whose name does not deserve repeating and gotten him to do it?