Virginia Libertarian

Speaking about the recent hysteria in Boston over some promotional signs along the highways, John Stossel had this to say.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Panic in Boston

Boston’s crazy reaction reinforces the theme I’ve been sounding in recent columns: Decentralization of authority is always better than centralized power. Imagine if the federal Department of Homeland Security imposed procedures on all cities for when suspicious devices are spotted. The whole country might have come to a standstill.Instead — thank goodness — cities and states can establish their own procedures based on their own knowledge and experience. If Boston’s procedures cause the city to panic and shut down, at least New York’s and L.A.’s don’t.

That’s the beauty of federalism.

Absolutely.  Any powers not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved for the states.

Everybody should have one of these:

Among other issues, Paul also voiced support for abandoning the war on drugs, allowing gold and silver to serve as legal tender, repealing the Seventeenth Amendment - which lets voters directly elect U.S. Senators - and ending the practice of withholding taxes from one’s pay. Instead, taxpayers would have to actually write checks to pay their taxes, a move Paul figured would soon end what he called the present tax-and-spend philosophy of government.

Townhall.com::Nonsense Ideas::By Walter E. Williams

How many times have we heard: If it will save just one life, it’s worth it? The “it” could be bike helmet laws, childproof medicine bottles, or formaldehyde and asbestos safety regulations. A good economist cringes hearing such statements because they only consider the benefits of an action while ignoring the cost. Looking at benefits only, just about anything is worth doing because there’s usually a benefit. Let’s look at it.According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, some 43,443 people were killed on the nation’s highways in 2005. If Congress were to enact a 10 miles per hour national speed limit, we’d save thousands of lives each year. You say, “Williams, that would be stupid and impractical!” My response to you is: But look at all the lives that would be saved. What you really mean by stupid and impractical is that preventing thousands of highway fatalities is not worth the cost and inconvenience that would result from having to poke along at 10 miles per hour. Of course, calling a 10 miles per hour law stupid and impractical is a more socially acceptable way of saying those saved lives aren’t worth it.

We have to become educated on the costs of the plans and regulations that our legislators are pushing at us, and not just be aware of the benefits that the are “giving” us.  Any plan of action has an associated cost, and if you are unaware of that cost, then you are ripe pickings for vote-buying schemes.

USATODAY.com

Law enforcement agencies across the country have been upgrading their firepower to deal with what they say is the increasing presence of high-powered weapons on the streets.“This (weapons upgrade) is being done with an eye to the absolute knowledge that more higher-caliber weapons are on the street since the expiration of the ban,” Knight said. He said his own department of about 20 officers is in the midst of determining whether to upgrade its weapons.

Stucker says deputies are now “frequently” encountering assault weapons in local robberies and during simple traffic stops. Weapons seizures in Orlando have increased overall by 26% since 2004.

You have to love these scare tactics. I love it that they are “frequently” encountering assault weapons. Is that statistcally more or less than last year, and the year before. Do they have any numbers to back up how often they have encountered assault weapons. I also particularly love how they then try to associate the 26% overall increase in weapon seizures to the assault weapons, trying to make you think that this 26% is related at all to the assault weapons. This doesn’t even state if the weapons are fireams, they could have been seizing knives, or baseball bats, who knows? Now, anyone can go out on google and actually find some data on crime rates and the use of assault weapons in crimes, here is an excerpt from an old L.A. Times article.

Even more interesting, the seven states that have their own assault weapons bans saw a smaller drop in murders than the 43 states without such laws, suggesting that doing away with the ban actually reduced crime. (States with bans averaged a 2.4% decline in murders; in three states with bans, the number of murders rose. States without bans saw murders fall by more than 4%.)

The drop was not just limited to murder. Overall, violent crime also declined last year, according to the FBI, and the complete statistics carry another surprise for gun control advocates. Guns are used in murder and robbery more frequently then in rapes and aggravated assaults, but after the assault weapons ban ended, the number of murders and robberies fell more than the number of rapes and aggravated assaults.

It’s instructive to remember just how passionately the media hyped the dangers of “sunsetting” the ban. Associated Press headlines warned “Gun shops and police officers brace for end of assault weapons ban.” It was even part of the presidential campaign: “Kerry blasts lapse of assault weapons ban.” An Internet search turned up more than 560 news stories in the first two weeks of September that expressed fear about ending the ban. Yet the news that murder and other violent crime declined last year produced just one very brief paragraph in an insider political newsletter, the Hotline.

Here is something important about the militarization of the police force that we need to keep in mind (emphasis mine):

State and local police departments are increasingly accepting the military as a model for their behavior and outlook. The sharing of training and technology is producing a shared mindset. The problem is that the mindset of the soldier is simply not appropriate for the civilian police officer. Police officers confront not an “enemy” but individuals who are protected by the Bill of Rights. Confusing the police function with the military function can lead to dangerous and unintended consequences—such as unnecessary shootings and killings.

Politics is not about facts. It is about what politicians can get people to believe.
-Thomas Sowell