The Bloomberg Collection

 

Tired of drab gunmetal blue and black dominating your arsenal? Do a fashion makeover on your weaponry with The Bloomberg Collection of designer gun paints and camouflage.

Wisconsin-based Lauer Custom Weaponry is honoring our hoplophobic mayor with a line of brightly colored paints for each of the 5 boroughs — Manhattan red, Bronx rose, Brooklyn blue, Queens green, and Staten Island orange. They even include a stencil of Mayor Mike’s face for the barrel of the gun.

If urban camouflage is more your taste, Lauer also offers the Bloomberg Collection EZ Camo Kit with a brick-wall-and-graffiti motif for only $129.

Not surprisingly, our ingrateful mayor doesn’t appreciate the tribute. “By coloring these guns, a real one looks like a toy, and a police officer won’t be able to tell the difference,” the mayor huffed.

That’s the same excuse Bloomberg and his nanny-state allies used in 2003, when they tried to ban all toy guns from New York City — until the Manhattan Libertarian Party rode to the rescue.

Of course, it’s a total urban myth that cops are shooting innocent kids because they mistake toy guns for real ones. There’s been exactly one documented incident in NYC since 1994 of a truly innocent child playing with a toy gun and mistakenly being shot. That was in the case of a deaf child playing in a darkened hallway who couldn’t hear the police order him to drop the weapon. The other “children being shot while playing with a toy gun” are inevitably gang-bangers using a fake gun to commit a real robbery.

On the other hand, the police do sometimes mistake a wallet or a cellphone for a gun, with deadly consequences, but so far they haven’t called for a ban on wallets and cellphones.

As of 2006, anyone who uses, buys or sells a gun-coloration kit in New York faces a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Here’s a modest proposal: How about the police refrain from shooting their own guns until they have positively identified a lethal threat? And by threat I don’t mean the mere presence of something that may or may not be a gun. Like say, oh I don’t know, a gun barrel pointed at person, the suspect refusing an order to drop the weapon pointed at a person, or bullets emerging from the barrel.

The Ron Paul Revolution lives!!

I just got this absolutely killer Ron Paul video from  www.HighTidepromo.com.

Paterson Too Good to be True? (Probably)

I know he hasn’t even officially assumed the governorship yet, so it’s way premature to judge him. Still, I just assumed I’d easily find a lot not to like about David Paterson, but honestly I’m having a very hard time of it. Turns out he supports reforming the Rockefeller drug laws, reining in trigger-happy cops, and even voting for non-citizens. Now it turns out he is (or at least was very recently) a big opponent of eminent domain:

If David Paterson as governor displays the opposition to eminent domain that he showed as a state senator, several high-profile development projects in New York City could be derailed or delayed, including a Columbia University expansion, the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, and the transformation of Willets Point in Queens.As a state Senate leader, Mr. Paterson in 2005 held a rally with Council Member Letitia James and state Senator William Perkins on the steps of City Hall during which he called for a statewide moratorium on the use of eminent domain.

Mr. Paterson said a decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Kelo v. City of New London case could lead to a “gold rush” of eminent domain use across the state, The New York Sun reported at the time. He said he would gather legislators and introduce legislation to impose a moratorium on its use.

I’m sure he’ll go along with whatever tax hikes Sheldon Silver proposes (but then again he might surprise us), and all his talk at his press conference yesterday about campaign finance reform made me nervous, but so far we could do a lot worse. Heck, we have done a lot worse — in each of the last three gubernatorial administrations.

Do any of our readers have any dirt on Paterson? Leave a note in the comments.

Blown Up by His Own Fart?

With so many politicians getting hoisted by their own petards lately — Spitzer by prostitution and money-laundering investigations, McCain by campaign finance technicalities, etc. — it got me to thinking about just what the heck is a petard anyway.

I turned to the trusty Merriam-Webster online dictionary and saw this interesting entry:

Main Entry:

pe·tard

Pronunciation:

\pe-’tär(d)\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle French, from peter to break wind, from pet expulsion of intestinal gas, from Latin peditum, from neuter of peditus, past participle of pedere to break wind; akin to Greek bdein to break wind

Date:

1598

1 : a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall 2 : a firework that explodes with a loud report

Breaking wind? An explosive? And how is one hoisted by either? The mind reels.

I then turned to the final arbiter of knowledge in the modern era, Wikipedia. It turns out that “hoist with his own petard,” like every other phrase we utter today, was originally coined by Shakespeare. It comes from Hamlet:

In the following passage, the “letters” refer to instructions (written by his uncle Claudius, the King) to be carried sealed to the King of England, by Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the latter being two schoolfellows of Hamlet. The letters, as Hamlet suspects, contain a death warrant against Hamlet, who will later open and modify them to instead request the execution of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Enginer refers to a military engineer.

There’s letters seal’d: and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fang’d,

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;

For ’tis the sport to have the enginer

Hoist with his own petar; and ‘t shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines

And blow them at the moon: O, ’tis most sweet,

When in one line two crafts directly meet.

So to get hoist with one’s own petard is literally to get blown up (hoist into the air) by one’s own bomb. The Wikipedia authors also conclude that Shakespeare was having some fun with the word’s origin: “Also note here, Shakespeare’s probable off-color pun ‘hoisted with his own petar’ (i.e., fart) as reason for the spelling ‘petar’ rather than ‘petard’.”

In conclusion, Eliot Spitzer was blown up by his own fart.

Keep Your Pimp Hand Strong, Eliot

As we watch Eliot Spitzer skulk off into the sunset, we bid him a not so fond farewell and prepare to turn a new page. Monday (or sooner), we’ll turn our attention to incoming governor David Paterson.

But before we move on, here’s one last bit of Spitzerrific humor, courtesy of commenter E5:

         

Love Client Number 9

Hilarious!

Crime Scene Tape Around Eliot Spitzer’s Pants

A few random morning-after thoughts on the Spitzer scandal:

As hinted at in yesterday’s post, I bought champagne for everyone at last night’s Manhattan Libertarian Party meeting to celebrate the downfall of The Sherriff of Wall Street. Really cheap champagne. You probably shouldn’t expect much from a $15 bottle of Russian bubbly, but it was even worse than it sounds. Especially since it was preceded and followed by pints of Guinness.

My schadenfreude over Client 9’s demise is tempered by the realization that soon-to-be Governor David Paterson will be no picnic. Granted, Paterson is not the bully that Spitzer is (Sonny Barger isn’t the bully that Spitzer is), but he’s more likely to be Sheldon Silver’s lapdog. At least Eliot offered some very modest resistance to our state legislatures wild spending and tax hike schemes. Paterson can be expected to roll over and give Silver and Bruno everything they want.

The New York Times has an excellent roundup of all the Spitzer jokes from the late-night comedians. David Letterman was truly inspired:

“Do you think it’s too soon to be hitting on Mrs. Eliot Spitzer?” David Letterman asked his New York audience on CBS. And then he was on a roll:

“The new scandal here in New York City, just breaking a couple of hours ago – Eliot Spitzer apparently involved in some kind of prostitution activities. You know what that means — hookers. And right about now, Spitzer is huddling with his advisers to develop a drinking problem.

“Did you happen to see the press conference? Very dramatic. Eliot Spitzer was there. He had yellow crime scene tape draped around his pants – crazy.

“Here’s what happened. It was one of those sting deals and they caught Spitzer – Governor Spitzer — with a wire soliciting a prostitute. I’m thinking, ‘Holy cow, we can’t get Bin Laden … but we got Spitzer. We got Spitzer!’ He apparently paid her an extra 100 bucks not to call him ‘Spitzer!’

“But here’s the lesson, ladies and gentlemen: This is why I always wear a fake mustache and pay cash. It’s the only way to go, if you’re going to get in trouble.

“The thinking now is that the governor may step down now to spend less time with his family.

“He’s caught now soliciting a hooker, but thank God, on the bright side, it did not involve an airport men’s room.”

Later, Mr. Letterman featured a Top 10 list of Eliot Spitzer Excuses:

10. “Oh come on, like you were never involved in a prostitution ring.”
9. “Hookers is fun.”
8. “Just trying to help the economy.”
7. “Have you ever been to Albany?”
6. “It’s part of my new MTV prank show, ‘Spitz’d.’”
5. “Haven’t been myself since Roy Scheider died.”
4. “Uh, tainted beef?”
3. “Whether it’s a hooker or your wife, you’re always paying for – you married fellas know what I’m talking about.”
2. “Wanted to be known as the Charlie Sheen of politics.”
1. “I thought Bill Clinton legalized this years ago.”

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Eliot Spitzer caught with his pants down! I love it!! Expect the man who shall forever after be known as Client 9 to resign shortly.

That he was a patron of a prostitution ring with a name like The Emperors Club VIP makes it even more fitting. These guys really do think of themselves as emperors and the rest of us as serfs, above the laws they use to oppress the masses.

As attorney general, Spitzer prosecuted at least two prosecution rings — callously ruining dozens of lives over the quintessential victimless crime. Now he reaps what he sowed.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Be sure to come to the Manhattan Libertarian Party meeting tonight — the champagne is sure to be flowing!

Perhaps we have some friends in the videogame industry?

Ron Paul wins! and so does the human race

As the Democratic presidential race descends to new depths of personal negativity and John McCain disintegrates,  the cause of human liberty has emerged as the clear winner in the 2008 presidential race.

 

A little over a year ago few people had ever heard of Ron Paul, there were no Ron Paul meet up groups.  Rudy Giuliani was a shoo-in to win the Republican nomination and probably the presidency.  The Republican Party was firmly in the hands of the big government neo-cons and the Libertarian party was as usual pondering its naval.

Cultural change has to happen before political change and as Avery Knapp, leader of New York City’s Ron Paul meet-up puts it “ collectivism won the 20^th century”. 

What a difference a year makes!  Today pretty much everyone, whether they like him or not, knows who Ron Paul is. Twenty-somethings debate non-interventionist foreign policy, the gold standard and elimination of the Fed and the IRS.  By the way they don’t debate “whether” on these issues, they debate “how”.

Of course that debate hasn’t made it through the thick skulls of the vast majority of major party candidates yet or even a majority of voters.  But no one is dismissing the Ron Paul Revolution anymore either. 

Let’s look at a few areas where the Ron Paul Revolution won resounding victories. The internet is considered by many to be the campaign tool of the future and the Ron Paul Revolution buries the competition with 106,000 meet-up group members, in over 1500 meetups.  Mike Huckabee is a distant second with 19,000 members and 496 groups.  But let’s look at what those meetups are doing.  Ron Paul meetups are 10 times more active than Huckabee’s and account for about 90% of all presidential meetup activities.

Candidate            Members         Groups            meetup events

Ron Paul                 106,000          1500            37,000

Mike Huckabee        19,000            496               3,600

Barak Obama             7,000            105               1,000

Hillary Clinton             1,800              36                  334

John McCain                   36                1                      0

Source: http://www.meetup.com/topics/polact/cand/pres/

How about fund-raising?  Of course the party of big money, the Democrats, have their fangs much deeper into corporate America. Clinton and Obama have each raised about $140 million primarily from people connected to financial institutions and law firms.  McCain gets his money from people in similar industries and firms but he has only raised about $50 million.

Compared to the big money crowd Ron Paul, having raised about $32 million, might not look like much.  But as Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney know, money can’t always by you love.   And when an unknown guy who ”had no chance” raises nearly as much as the winner of the Republican nomination you have to ask yourself where it all came from.  It turns out that the guy who wants to bring the troops home from everywhere, and leave health care to the free market gets much of his money from people in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Health Care. 

It’s also worth mentioning that “budget-balancer” John McCain has about  $5.2 million cash on hand and about $5.5 million in debt.  You do the math.  Is that how he’d run the country?   In contrast “crazy” Ron Paul has about $6 million cash on hand and 0 debt.  What? Zero debt?  Excuse me – I’ll have what he’s having.

Sources: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/moneyweb.asp?cycle=2008

What’s wrong with this picture? 

The democrats are busy spewing venom.

The big government Republican nominee has more debt than money and his army consists of a professional campaign staff.  The sitting Republican President is a world-class bozo with record low approval ratings and the neo-cons are in disarray.

On the other hand, the Ron Paul Revolution is flush with cash and bursting with young, energized, committed volunteers who are busy right now expanding their grass-roots decentralized, free market network.  They are preparing for phase 2:  running Freedom Movement candidates, raising awareness and educating the public as to why Human Liberty works better for everyone, and taking action to change outcomes in DC, State Houses and City Halls.

As Arlo Guthrie said if “50 people a day do it they call it a movement.”  This one goes by a few names, the Freedom Movement or perhaps the Second American Revolution and it’s happening now, right before your eyes.  Everyone doesn’t agree on everything.  That’s the beauty of the free market.  But we share a belief in Human Liberty as the best way to improve the human condition.

The majority of the Ron Paul army is Republican or “libertarian-republican” but there is a significant minority of  “libertarian-democrats” as well.   It also includes some members of the Conservative Party and Constitution Party.  We also share critical principles with social liberals.

Major party approval ratings dwindle and the Ron Paul army has declared it’s intention to save the Republican Party, to turn it away from Bush, neo-cons, big spending and war and back to principles of freedom and small government. Meanwhile, Libertarian Party membership is up 25%.    Freedom Movement candidates are starting to build their campaign teams with veterans of the Ron Paul primaries.

People are talking about non-intervention, sound money, free markets and all the other thinsg that go along with Human Liberty.

What’s wrong with this picture? 

Nothing is wrong with it.

Ron Paul wins, and so does the human race.