Free In Idaho!

While everyone has been watching Hillary cry, Obama walk on water, and Huckabee try to redefine conservatism, other things have been taking place that receive very little notice.  Very little comment, anyway.  Did you notice George Bush’s signature on the new energy bill?  Did you notice the must higher mileage requirements?  Did you notice the bill also will eventually outlaw incandescent light bulbs over the next few years?  Did you care?

I already mentioned New York City trying to further restrict guns, this time by requiring permits and registration on antiques and muzzleloaders (see earlier post).  I appreciate we’re gaining traction and some victories in other states, but New York is New York and it carries more than a little weight.  It might behoove us to pay attention to the direction the largest nanny liberal parts of the country go lurching off to.  Increasingly onerous gun control is one direction.  How about if they want to control our thermostats as well?  Would THAT get your attention?  Seriously.

..In California, we have 236 pages of state-mandated standards for building energy efficiency, known as Title 24.  This prescribes methods for calculating the sizes of your home windows, the capacities of your air conditioner and heater, the thickness of the insulation in your attic.  A small cottage industry has sprung up to perform these engineering calculations that are required for any new commercial or residential construction or major change to existing structures.  While I’ve never personally been involved in this branch of retail professional engineering, I’ve had colleagues who would moonlight doing Title 24 calcs. It is now just part of the mandated paperwork involved in the construction business these days in California.

A new revision to Title 24 is in the works for 2008[2] and it includes a number of improvements and enhancements that are largely good sense items and should be non-controversial.  For example a new swimming pool will probably need larger diameter pipes between the pool, the filter and the pump than was former practice.  This will reduce the fluid friction losses that your pump must overcome and hence reduce the pump’s consumption of electricity, albeit at a minor increase in first cost for the larger pipes and fittings.  Another good idea is a requirement for lighter colored shingles, the “Cool Roof Initiative.”  That is intended to reduce heat loss over cold winter nights by emission and heat gain on summer days by absorption. My neighbor and I both recently discovered that it is difficult to get roofers to NOT use dark colored shingles for some reason.  Having a little state muscle behind us will help, especially for renters.

Now, I have no problem with the “idea” of building codes and standards.  No question that American housing has come a long way from some of the unsafe ramshackle junk built 50 years ago.  But government mandating that you have to use butterscotch poop colored roofing?  I’m sorry, bud, but if you pull your wallet out there isn’t a roofer in MY town that will question your preference.  If you have somehow found a roofer who won’t put up your color, I’ll give you the names of 15 other companies that won’t have any problem with it.  So don’t be so happy about government intervention all the way down to color choices.  You let them get away with that, you might as well let them force you to put in government controlled, remote-controlled thermostats or something.  What’s that you say?  You’re OK with them mandating colors but wouldn’t go for that thermostat deal, eh?  Sorry guy, you might be too late.

..What should be controversial in the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a “programmable communicating thermostat” or PCT. Every new home and every change to existing homes’ central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision.  Each PCT will be fitted with a “non-removable ” FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose.  During “price events” those changes are limited to +/- four degrees F and you would be able to manually override the changes.  During “emergency events” the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.

In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control.  Your desires and needs can and will be overridden by the state of California through its public and private utility organizations.  All this is for the common good, of course.

This kind of thing makes blood shoot out of my eyes!  No coal plants.  No nukes.  No new hydro.  And you certainly can’t have wind turbines where anyone can see them.  No new oil or gas drilling, anywhere.  No wood.  And you thought that $3 gas was the worst energy problem you have.  The only good thing I can think of here is that if I can’t get any power, I don’t have to worry about never getting one of those 150 inch TV’s I saw on the news yesterday… no place to plug it in.

One last serious thought.  If you depend on the government for the necessities of life, be it a job, your retirement, your education, or health care, or power, explain to me again about “the land of the free, and the home of the brave”.

Not even your antiques and muzzleloaders are safe from the gun-grabbers in New York state.  Here’s a new bill to limit even these firearms

(CNSNews.com) - New York has some of the toughest gun control laws on the books, but a new measure being debated in the state assembly would mandate that people who want to buy muzzle-loading pistols or muskets get a permit for “antique firearms.”

According to State Assembly Bill A09543, introduced by Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) on Nov. 30, the measure would eliminate the exemption of antique firearms from regulation and licensing.

The legislation amends sections of New York’s penal law to prevent certain types of firearms known as “black powder rifles” to be purchased without background checks and carried without licenses.

“Currently, because these .50-caliber rifles are muzzle-loaded, they are classified as ‘antique guns,’ and as a result, are exempt from the screening process of other firearm purchases,” the bill says.

But by golly, we can’t let that stand can we?  I mean, they’ve had a couple of incidents with these horrible weapoms already.  A domestic violence call in which one officer was shot and the shooter was then killed, and an odd incident involving a mentally lacking individual with a Fred Flintstone mask carrying a muzzleloader that ended without a shooting.  But I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Any day now, the gangs and the criminals will boil out of the inner cities and create havoc all over the place with their deadly unlicensed antiques.

..Soon after the Queens incident, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called for stricter statewide gun regulations. “Anything you can put a bullet in” should require a permit, he said during a news conference. “I’m certainly a proponent for more regulations.”

Gianaris stated in his measure that it would “close this loophole” in state law by requiring those purchasing black powder rifles to be screened “in a manner consistent” with other New York gun restrictions.

Do they ever stop to think that, given some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, if this “loophole” really posed such a dangerous threat to society in the state of New York the evidence would be the exceedingly high number of crimes committed with muzzleloaders?  Seriously, if the intent is to prevent crime and provide for increased public safety, like they claim, show me the need for it, and show me the evidence that bad guys and goblins are streaming through this “loophole” and buying and using antique firearms in their criminal acts.  Oh, what?  You don’t have this evidence?  Hmmm, imagine that.  I guess that means your garden variety New York goblins are going to do what they already do and continue purchasing their modern guns on the black market.  So you’re really going after the law abiding citizens AGAIN, aren’t you…?

The pro-gun side of this is almost as annoying.  Instead of fighting back this legislation on Constitutional grounds (define “infringe” for me, would you) they’re offering up lame-oh economic objections that it will hurt museums and re-enactors.

..Ken Mathison, president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education (SCOPE, Inc.), told Cybercast News Service on Monday that the intent of the new measure “is to keep muzzleloaders out of the hands of felons, but through its wording, it requires a license for all muzzleloaders.”

Mathison and other critics point to the language of the bill, which defines an “antique firearm” as “any muzzle-loading pistol or revolver with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap or similar type of ignition system (or a pistol or revolver which uses fixed cartridges which are no longer available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade).”

Because of that broad definition and the lack of any exception for historical sites and museums, the bill could end antique firearm collecting and reenacting historical battles in New York, which would be a blow to the state’s economy.

Like that’s going to carry any weight?  Right.  I’m a firm believer that gun rights need to be protected by arguing the Constitutional points, which involve the right to self defense, not the economic points.  Our right to self defense is what is at stake here, whether from thugs on the street or thugs in the government, not some economic right or benefit the state might have.  The economic rights of museums, re-enactors, and hunters will NOT keep the right of CITIZENS to bear arms safe.  Unless you don’t mind slipping down the path that the Aussies and the Brits have already disappeared down, you’d better get realistic about how you defend your Constitutional rights.   Remember what the New York Police Commissioner said

“Anything you can put a bullet in”

He’s serious folks.  Are YOU?

Oleg Volk poster.