Saturday, April 20, 2013

There oughtta be a law!

After the horse is out, Sen. Lautenberg* looks around to close a barn door. Any barn will do; it doesn't have to be the one the horse actually came out of.

In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to call them "legislators".

Burger flippers get graded on how many burgers they flip; assembly line workers on how many bolts they put in holes; looked at that way, can you actually blame someone whose job description is "lawmaker"? The only tool they have is writing laws, so every problem looks illegal.

We need a House of Repeal.

*This is my shocked face.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just when you thought powder MIGHT start becoming available again, another douche hat steps up to the mic

bluesun said...

Ummm... I've known that fertilizer and diesel works as an explosive since I was in 3rd grade.

Sherm said...

A quick check on the types of bombs used finds a suggestion, with illustrations, to use match heads as the "explosive." Shazam! I've evaded the background check and it took what, five seconds.

Anonymous said...

I have often said that instead of "lawmakers", we need "lawerasers."

- Drifter

billf said...

What if we called them all 'representatives',and they did what we told them to do ,and not what was on their own personal agenda?
And term limits?
Billf

tweell said...

I want more than term limits. I want law limits. It would take a constitutional amendment, but...

No law will have more than 4543 words in it (the number of words in the Constitution).

There will be only 535 federal laws (the number of legislators in both houses). Once that limit is reached, an old law must be repealed to put a new law in place.

All bills must be reviewed and passed by a grand jury assembled to check language, with no lawyers allowed, before voting is permitted.

The executive branch is subject to the same total limits on Executive Orders and regulations. They get 5 cabinets, same as George Washington. State, Treasury, War, Attorney General, Postmaster General. The last can be changed for another, but no more than 5 allowed.

Bubblehead Les. said...

It's a shame that our Founding Fathers were (mostly) Good, Honorable, Thoughtful, Educated Men who were suffering under the misconception that their new Government would be run by people like them in the Future.

It's kinda like as if the nice old Church Ladies had set up a Town Council.

Just the idea that Useless, Evil, Venal, Power-hungry Scumbags would ever get near the Seats of Power and they needed mechanisms in place like Term Limits and a Mandatory Supreme Court "Is this Law Constitutional before it goes into effect Veto?" never crossed their minds.

Which is why if I ever get hold of a Time Machine, there would be a Hell of a History Lecture back in the Constitutional Convention!

Scott J said...

Agree with the first anon comment. I was in my local sporting goods store that sell reloading supplies Thursday and stock levels were much improved and the crowd was smaller than it had been in weeks. A co-worker and I have been going ever other week on average since January.

Now the supply chain recovery just got kicked another 6 months or so down the road.

KM said...

The Lautenberg Mummy speaks! Run for your lives!
He taught Chris Chistie well:

Chris Christie has announced a multi-faceted plan to curb gun violence.
The proposal calls for expanding government-funded mental health treatment, requiring parental sign-off before minors can buy or rent violent video games and mandating would-be gun owners show government-issued IDs.
The New Jersey governor also recommended banning the sale of Barrett .50-caliber semi-automatic sniper rifles.


I can't wait for the day they want a background check just to leave the house. Then we'll really be safe and free!


Erin Palette said...

House of Repeal.

This is brilliant.

Jay G said...

Words fail me:

"Make it illegal to manufacture homemade explosives without a permit."

Right. Because the jihadis are really going to give a hairy rat's patoot that they don't have a permit.

It's hard to tell which bothers me more: that they put this pablum out for people to drink up, or that - by and large - the people continue to drink it up...

rickn8or said...

KM, Christie thinks he's gonna ride that horse to the White House.

And we all know "Night of the Living Dead" Laughtenberg can be counted upon to carry even the most asinine anti-gunner's water.

Kristophr said...

The Whig Party in England stayed in power for nearly a century by simply repealing one medieval privilege law after another during the 19th Century.

Geodkyt said...

Tweel:

How about this idea?

Require any bill or amendment to be read out loud, before a continuous quorum, before any debate, amendment proposal, or vote is permitted.

Windy Wilson said...

"Ignorance is no excuse for a law."
I've been mulling over in my mind how to get "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" posted in 12 inch letters visible in the main room of every law library in California, and then require a tour of a law library by every 11th grader in the state. It would tie in better with 12th grade Government class, but I also want to get the ones who drop out after 11th grade, when attendance is no longer required.
The number of books in the library ought to give every 16-year-old pause.

Hey, I can wish, can't I?

TigerStripe said...

All laws should have at least a sunset like the 1994 AWB. TS

Netpackrat said...

> powder is too easy to anonymously
> purchase across the country.

Please tell me where I can find some of this powder. Because I've been looking for months. Here in Alaska we can't even get into the backorder qeue because it's almost impossible for an individual to ship it up.

J.R.Shirley said...

That's a miscontruction of Blackstone, WW, and no single US citizen knows every US law.

TigerStripe said...

Netpackrat - The federal government is already "protecting" you then... TS

B.S. philosopher said...

If this law rolls blackpowder and smokeless powder into the same regulatory group as dynamite and blasting caps, then it is going to effectively ban reloading and muzzleloading. Your average mom and pop sporting goods store, Walmart, and even the big boxes will drop the product rather than put up with the red-tape and hoop jumping required to sell "explosives"

Kristophr said...

Make congress chant the entire CFR before they are allowed to go home.

Chris said...

L. Neil Smith had the idea of repeal over ten years ago, and put it quite well: http://www.lneilsmith.org/antmen.html

Ed Foster said...

Time to load up on some 8 pound kegs of "explosive" 4895, Unique, et al.

Hey Frank, what happens if I leave a candle burning on a top shelf, and put two M-80's with a long fuse under a 5 pound bag of baking flour?

We end up with a crater in the ground where a house used to be. Are you going to outlaw flour? Or just ration it out in half pound packets we have to sign for?

The M-80's are already illegal, and every kid in the country has a bunch come July 4th.

tweell said...

Requiring a bill to be read out loud before a continuous quorum sounds good to me, that would limit the tomes that Congress calls bills nowadays, and would be much easier to get than my proposal.

Tam said...

Chris,

"L. Neil Smith had the idea of repeal over ten years ago, and put it quite well: http://www.lneilsmith.org/antmen.html"

...and Heinlein had it long before El Neil. :)

(...and I'm sure it predates Bernardo de la Paz, but I can't be arsed to look up the origins.)

Anonymous said...

Tam beat me by 1/2 an hour!


I do like the "Read it out Loud before a contuiniuos quorum" requirement: It gives a whole new meaning to voting with your feet!

-jimbob86

oldsailor said...

Next some swine / idiot will want background checks for charcoal brickettes because when you add LOX (liquid oxygen)....

Ed said...

I am waiting for someone to figure out that by shutting down the Boston metro are Friday at an estimated economic cost of over $300 Million, that the vehicle accident and crime rates also went down. The idiots will conclude that lockdowns make you safer and will demand more of them.

Ed said...

"Boston metro are Friday" should be Boston metro area Friday".