What do you call a bus full of lawyers...

 “1 down and 534 to go”, in reference to the Giffords shooting.  With no conviction of a crime, or even charges--a Massachusetts gun owner  has lost his right to own guns based on that line in his blog.

This is a major reason we resist registration and licensing.  He has been deemed 'unsuitable' due to political speech--I believe the speech in question to be tasteless, but constitutionally protected.

If the second amendment allows someone's guns to be rounded up due to some government official's opinion of suitability, what exactly does it protect?  

There are other bill of rights issues involved as well--should the government be allowed to revoke other licenses based on someone speaking freely, if they are meeting the standards of the license?    Should a driver's license be revoked if someone is accused of driving drunk or speeding, with no arrest, charges or conviction?

Taking my ball and going home

I think I'm pretty much done arguing with Joan Peterson.

Joan wrote a post about Martin Luther King.  I made this comment, preserved here:

One of the things that is routinely ignored in the civil rights struggle is the role of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, and other armed defenders.

Nonviolence works only under ideal conditions--primarily against a civilized, mostly nonviolent opponent. It worked against the governments of the US, and the colonial government of India, but would be useless against a more repressive regime or against violent enemies like the KKK.

The notion that defense will only escalate the violence is not supported by the facts. The KKK was fond of drive-by shootings--until they started taking return fire. At that point, the KKK decided that maybe drive-by shootings weren't a good idea.

It is immoral to use violence to achieve political goals. However, it is also immoral to stand by and allow innocents to be harmed when you have the means to effectively resist--I would much rather see the instigator of a drive by killed than their intended victim injured.

It is also immoral to take the means to resist away from decent people.

Her response:

Whoa there, Sevesteen. Are you sure you want these comments committed to writing? They seem pretty anti-government and leading to what?? " The notion that defense will only escalate the violence is not supported by the facts. The KKK was fond of drive-by shootings--until they started taking return fire. At that point, the KKK decided that maybe drive-by shootings weren't a good idea. " I don't think that is why the KKK stopped shooting people. Where is your evidence for such a statement? I wouldn't bring the KKK into a discussion about Martin Luther King- totally inappropriate and possibly incendiary. Please do not reply. You simply cannot justify what you said to having guns for self defense. Be careful what you are saying.

...and my response to that

Maybe I was not as clear as I should have been, but even re-reading my comment I think you've had to try hard to come up with an anti-governemnt interpretation.  I am not advocating violence against the government,  or even instigating violence against a group as awful as the KKK.  It would be immoral to go hunt down the KKK, to instigate violence against them.

However it is NOT immoral to shoot back at someone in a KKK costume who is shooting at you, your family or your neighbors.  There is a vast difference between immoral terrorist violence as practiced by the KKK, and proper, moral defensive violence.  

If I am unwelcome here, I will abide by that, but to misconstrue my comment and then to say I'm not welcome to clarify?  Of course it is up to you whether you allow this post. 

Unless you specifically say that you want me to continue, this will be the last comment I post on your blog.  I am saying this to keep me honest, and I will be posting a copy of this on my blog, whether or not you approve this post.

I don't mean for this to be 'she hurt my feelings, so I'm going home'.  Rather, if I'm both unwelcome and she's unable to comprehend, there's little point in continuing to waste time posting there--and unless I publicly say 'I won't be posting', I'll be too tempted.

Reasons to end the drug war, part 74

http://www.slate.com/id/2278244/

Patients in chronic pain cannot get relief, because their doctors are afraid of being prosecuted as drug dealers. In this particular case, Siobhan Reynolds became an advocate for pain relief after her husband died of a painful, debilitating illness. At one point his doctor was convicted of over-prescribing pain medications to other patients.

Even worse, in a case where Reynolds is working to help a different doctor to avoid prosecution, the courts have issued gag orders and required her to provide a data dump at great expense of all her documents relating to remotely similar activities. It appears to me that the prosecution isn't content with enforcing unjust laws, they are using unfair methods to harass opposition.

Some people claiming pain are drug abusers--but some really hurt. There is nowhere near enough justification in leaving pain untreated because someone, somewhere may be getting high.

End the drug war.

Loft bed

This is the loft bed/desk I've been building for the past few days.

The room I use as an office is  8' by 10', with a 3x3' corner of that used by the attic stairs--plus it has 2 large windows and a total of 3 doors.   Most of the time we've lived here, we have blocked off one or the other of the doors--otherwise there isn't much useful space in the room.  That is why the picture is different colors-I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole thing in the picture at one time, so I took 3 and spliced them together.

I re-used a lot of stuff, including some lumber from a previous loft bed.  The back of the rear shelf rests on a 2x4 strung across the bed legs, the front hangs from 1/4 threaded rod inserted into T nuts in the mattress support.   The rail is 1/2" electrical conduit inserted into holes drilled into the wood.  The first and last bar are screwed in place to hold the entire assembly together.

I'm very happy with the result so far.  More desk space in the same basic area, as much storage, the lights work better with less glare--and there's now a guest bed, at least for a reasonably agile single guest.

Cat O'clock

Our apartment is fairly small--big enough for the two of us, but fairly small for extra people.  I would call it a 1 1/2 bedroom, with the tiny bedroom used as the office.   There is not room for a regular bed without giving up one of the desks, and since we have rented the downstairs apartment there's no room for an overnight guest.  I decided to build a loft bed,  with my desk under it.    This meant moving most of the contents of the office into a pile in the living room, including an old sweep-second clock.

Cat was fascinated by the seconds hand, and tried to attack it...