A bill that would require a driver's license and a thumbprint for purchases of handgun ammo is on the governor's desk awaiting his signature. The proposed law from Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, AB962, would also ban sales over the internet or through the mail.

The proposed law is called the Anti-Gang Neighborhood Protection Act of 2009. It will prove to be major headache for responsible gun owners, and will be only a minor annoyance for gang members. Somebody tell de Leon that it's also comically self-defeating. Follow the thought process:

Problem: outlaws are murdering people
Solution: write a law saying you can't murder
Problem: outlaws don't follow laws, and they are still murdering people
Solution: write a law saying they can't have guns
Problem: outlaws don't follow laws, are still getting guns, and are still murdering people
Solution: write a law saying they can't have ammo
Read more...

What if the government had access to a device that gave it control over the climate of the United States--something that allowed them to manipulate the four seasons in order to provide a more stable environment? Most people would bristle at the thought, correctly sensing that governmental interference with nature would distort the lives of every single organism in the country. Yet those same people inexplicably permit that same sort of interference by allowing the government to intervene in natural economic "seasons".

Unmolested economies feature regular and natural cycles of growth, just like spring and summer, and periods of decline, like fall and winter. Just as ecosystems need those four seasons to function properly, economies also need hot and cold seasons to weed out excesses that threaten it. Read more...

The Constitution isn't a difficult document to read and understand. But while it's written in plain, non-legalese language, it's overshadowed by volumes of dense legal decisions that judges heaped on it over the years to try to advance their ideological agendas--or agendas from "civil liberties" groups such as the ACLU.

Next month the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the transfer of federal land to a private group is unconstitutional if the transfer was done specifically to avoid an Establishment Clause constitutional issue. A World War I veterans memorial cross sits on the land, although it is covered in a box after the ACLU asserted that it was unconstitutional for the federal government to permit a religious symbol on federal land. Read more...

An image of a donkey appears on the projector screen. Its anatomical parts, such as ears, muzzle, shank, and hock are identified; arrows connect the labels to the appropriate area on the donkey's body. The animal's rump has an uncanny resemblance to our 39^th President--a caricature made complete with his characteristic toothy, oversized smile. Sure enough, the label "Jimmy Carter" (between labels for the tail and the hock) points directly to it, making it clear that the former president is quite literally the butt of the joke. Read more...

The Ventura Police Department is the first in the nation to use a new computer system that allows officers and dispatchers to quickly ascertain more information about suspects and locations when they respond to a call.

PremierOne, a Motorola/Microsoft product, links officers in patrol cars to dispatch centers. When an officer arrives on the scene, he has instant access to suspect photos, arrest records, the crime history of the area, and more. Read more...

You could tell by the panicked look on Congresswoman Lois Capps face that she had no idea how to answer the question, "Is government-run healthcare in the Constitution" when trying to sell universal healthcare to a town hall in Oxnard, Calif. tonight.

She recovered quickly and gave a rambling answer that didn't quite address the question, which is what we've come to expect from politicians. She should have left it at that, but she kept talking.

"It says in the Constitution that there is a right to health, liberty, and happiness," the congresswoman said. Just to show us that this wasn't a slip of the tongue, she was kind enough to reiterate it.

Ouch.

Judging by the immediate reaction of the audience, a full house packed into an AME church, they knew what the congresswoman did not--that she misquoted the Declaration of Independence and then mistakenly referred to it as the Constitution. And Capps was the only person in the room that had taken oath to support and defend that document.

"She doesn't know the Constitution," said Mike Murphy, who was at the town hall. "How can you defend what you don't know?"

The Declaration of Independence reads: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

No mention of "health". We know she didn't read the healthcare bill, but now I'm wondering if she's even read the Constitution and/or Declaration of Independence.