By Jeremy Lott on RCP:

Talk about your inconvenient truth. Five days after Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had held a press conference touting the benefits of the city's handgun ban by brandishing a rifle with a bayonet and -- I swear I am not making this up -- cracking a joke about shoving it up a reporter's bum, an 80-year-old man on the West Side of Chicago traded gunfire with a burglar, killing the intruder.

For advocates of gun control, the optics on this story are just awful. It's nearly impossible to drum up any sympathy for the deceased, Anthony Nelson, who had a long history of drug and weapons convictions and was on probation. He attempted to break into the house, brought a gun with him, and fired twice at the so-far unnamed homeowner.

Conversely, it is impossible to fault the homeowner. The man who killed Nelson was a veteran of the Korean War. He fired only one shot and got the intruder in the chest. On that morning, the man was protecting not just himself but his wife and a 12-year-old great grandson who was staying over. A son told reporters "My father had no choice. It was him or the other guy."

Rest of the piece can be found here. Let's not forget that our current President hails from the Windy City and doubtless agrees with Mayor Daley on at least some level regarding firearms.

Interesting read.

When people extol the values of a political philosophy, I like to look to history for empirical data. Obviously republican forms of government with general police powers to enforce the common will are much more common than successful libertarian states. We can look to Athens, the Roman Republic before Sulla or Caesar.

There is one prominent exception: Iceland between the period of Norse settlement (probably 8-9th Century) and Norwegian domination (12th century). Iceland was a remarkable place during these years but due to a number of problems eventually was subsumed into Norway. The country sported a national legislature and a national court system supported through a combination of private enterprise and taxes, but it had absolutely no executive power. People suggest it was the first democracy to rule a country. Well, it wasn't (it's hard not to consider Athens a country), but it was quite remarkable nonetheless.

Icelandic society had basically three social classes based on offices, obligations, and conditions of servitude. The top class was occupied by the "godhar" who possessed property rights to a "godhord" which was a public office which contained legislative, attorney, and priestly roles. The godhord could be sold, loaned out, inherited, etc. In other words it was treated just like real property. The godhar collected taxes on the maintenance of temples, received income from arbitration and attorney services, and had certain rights regarding international commerce, such as first pick of goods from an overseas merchant. While "godhi" is usually translated as "chieftain," they didn't "rule" areas, and only were responsible for people who entered into contracts with them.

The second class were the bondar or thingmen, who were freeman farmers who entered into a relationship with a godhi. The bondi was responsible to represent the godhi's interests when serving on a jury at the thing ("thing" being legal assembly), were expected to serve as guards or soldiers for the godhi if necessary, and so forth. Bondir were allowed under Icelandic law to change allegiances more or less at will, so this relationship had to be mutually beneficial if it was to last.

The third class were thralls, or slaves, who were usually either people captured in raids or prisoners of war. If a thrall was freed, the freed man or woman would have certain legal obligations to the former owner, and the former owner would have paternal duties to the freed individual, but the children of freed thralls would be fully free citizens with no such obligations. Thralldom provided a sort of POW status for those captured during warfare or raiding operations, and provided a limited set of legal rights to those so held. Thralls weren't "slaves" in the way we think of them from American history in terms of simple human chattel, but rather individuals who were captured at war and afforded some legal protections provided that they'd work. Thralls could own property and were afforded the right to purchase their own freedom if such wasn't given by their "owner."

Now, for the Icelanders, life was surprisingly good compared to Continental Europe. While life expectancy from birth in France was about 20 years during the 10th century, assuming the child wasn't exposed to death in Iceland (infanticide was legal), the child could expect to live 45 years. Moreover the rate of dental caries in France over that shorter lifespan was 10% (meaning 10% of teeth were lost on average, or were decayed). Despite the longer lifespan, the rate in Iceland was 2%. The typical theory is that this would indicate a general lack of carbohydrates in the Icelanders' diet (they ate mostly dairy products, meat, and dried fish smeared with butter).

The longer lifespan is all the more incredible due to the way the Icelandic justice system worked: if the sagas are any indication blood feuds were quite common and may have actually had a stabilizing impact on Icelandic society due to how they were structured. These were generally resolved in court via lawsuits where the side which lost most would be compensated by the side which lost less. Often these were arbitrated with the support of extended families, but sometimes they were actually full law suits.

This system worked remarkably well for a remarkably long time (about three to four centuries). However, eventually Iceland was essentially annexed into Norway. The major causes for the Icelandic decline were:

1) Environmental degradation and erosion (a surprisingly common problem in the pre-modern world, but one which was particularly problematic to people on an island with limited land)
2) Climate change (the little ice age) which cut off Iceland from the Greenland colonies and made the island politically and economically dependant on Norway, and
3) The conversion to Christianity and the political struggles over the church in Iceland eventually allowed Norway to annex the island without a fight (though more than 100 years after the conversion)

After losing independence, Iceland would not regain it until WWII. However the system worked surprisingly well for a surprisingly long time period, and was (relative to the time) not a very bad place to live by any measure.

However, of course, this worked fine for an insular area like Iceland. It would not have worked in a place more easily subject to invasion.

Further reading:
"Medieval Iceland" by Jesse Byock
"Viking-Age Iceland" by Jesse Byock
"The Vikings" by Else Roesdahl
"Everyday Life in the Viking Age" by Jacqueline Simpson

Gotta love the United States. Apparently Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) was jogging and had a coyote go after his dog. He shot it dead with his trusty Ruger LCR. Ruger is now releasing a "Coyote Special" edition to celebrate this event. Only in America.

On a related note, I have some money set aside to buy a new firearm. I'm trying to decide if I want to buy a M1 Garand through the CMP or if I want to buy/build an AR of some sort. I've always wanted to own an M1 and the NRA high-power matches look like a lot of fun. On the other hand nothing annoys the anti-RKBA crowd more than an AR-15 with a few 30 round magazines. That's probably the wrong motivation to have when considering a four digit purchase, but there you go :)

I'll probably go with the M1, to the disappointment of all my friends with ARs. Hard to pass up owning a piece of history like that.

My single largest concern with the health care reform bill here is that the law, if upheld, would severely damage some of our most important Constitutional rights as American citizens. These rights are codified in the 5th Amendment and protect us all from unfair prosecution by the government in two ways: by requiring that due process not be denied, and by prohibiting the government from requiring self-incrimination.

It's important to realize how this mandate works as opposed to, say, the mandate to be insured when you drive in this regard. The state cannot force you or anyone else to admit to a traffic infraction or misdemeanor, so the only way this can be enforced is to require proof of insurance to drive, and to write tickets when this is not present during a traffic stop. Nonetheless, at least in my state, this can be challenged in court if you have insurance but the proof of it was not in the car during the traffic stop.

Obviously this sort of enforcement measure doesn't work when requiring people to purchase health insurance. I suppose Congress could make visiting an emergency room without insurance to be a misdemeanor or even a felony but that would just discourage the uninsured from seeking medical help when it was necessary. Consequently, Congress attempted to do something that's unprecedented: require disclosure of non-violation as part of the tax code and penalize people appropriately. This is where things become problematic.

To be sure there's no problem with Congress deciding to raise everyone's taxes by 2.5% and then giving everyone a tax credit equivalent to the current penalty, but that's not equivalent to the current system. Instead, if you make over about 28000 USD/year, you pay 2.5% as a penalty but if you make less, you pay $695 as a flat penalty. This penalty is equivalent to that which is assessed when one is convicted of various misdemeanors. While I think it might be argued that the objection of folks making more than 28k per year might be shadows instead of substance, for those making less, I don't think the law is Constitutional because it imposes a fixed penalty, requiring self-incrimination and denying due process. This is hence a "fine of not less than" structure pretending to be a tax, requiring self-incrimination, and adjudicated to a standard that would be impermissible if assessing a federal misdemeanor. I believe that such would be adjudicated to a preponderance of evidence, which is the standard for civil cases, not criminal cases. There are ways this could bleed over into criminal cases as well.

If this is upheld as Constitutional, then it is not an understatement to say that this is as much a threat to American liberty as any part of the so-called war on terror. The threat here is substantial and one that I don't think most Americans on either side of the isle appreciate: by eroding due process in the name of a social interest, we make it possible to use the tax code to make an end-run around the 5th Amendment, rendering our valued Constitutional protections of limited value. It seems to me that both parties seem intent on destroying due process guarantees in one way or another when it suits them, and I am very concerned about the future of my country. Our last hope at present is with the courts.

If this is upheld as Constitutional, there's no reason why a state couldn't list a bunch of crimes and require self incrimination on tax forms. At that point we move ever closer to a society characterized by "show me the man and I'll find you the crime." This is not what I want for my country. And while I have policy concerns over a single payer system in this country, they do not rise to this level. Let's hope that the courts protect our rights not to self-incriminate, and to ensure we have due process when accused of not having health insurance that the government deems acceptable.

It's official.

I have to say that I'm surprised by this. I always figured that Cuomo had political aspirations beyond Governor of NYS. Running for this office makes little sense if he does -- the Governors mansion is where political careers go to die. As Attorney General he has the ability to effect change -- whether that change is positive or not depends on your viewpoint but the ability is there. As Governor he will be held hostage by our corrupt Legislature and entrenched special interests. The electorate of course won't understand this -- all they'll remember is that he went to Albany promising to clean up the place and failed to deliver.

I suppose he could win in a landslide and take a mandate for reform to Albany that the Legislature would be unable to ignore but I rather doubt that will happen. Spitzer won 59 of 62 counties with 69% of the popular vote and still proved unable to change anything in Albany. It's hard to see Cuomo doing better at the ballot box or having the courage to take on the special interests, most of whom favor his party. From a political standpoint I think he's making a huge mistake here. Much better to stay where he is or try to knock off Gillibrand in a primary race.

John Stossel on the 1st amendment. God bless America.....

Snippet from RealClearPolitics, Congress Accelerates Out of Control:

When the news broke about alleged safety defects in Toyota vehicles, official Washington was appalled. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood accused the company of being "safety deaf" and said "they have a very bad business model."

Then there was the reaction from customers, the very people whose lives and safety are at stake every time they get in a car. In the first four months of this year, Toyota's U.S. sales did not fall, as you might expect. They rose by 12 percent.

Sticky gas pedals, sudden acceleration, alleged violations of the law, federal fines, multiple recalls -- none of them sent Americans fleeing in panic.

Oops. Our bad.

Anybody else have the issue where you only see one icon for a friend/fan? I have people who are both and I only see the green friend icon. Used to see both of them, friend and fan.

I use Firefox, but this is an issue in IE too.

Short Flash vid...
http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1273610622233RA56

My apologies to the people whom posted in my journal about this previously. My journal entry was disrupted by a few individuals whom apparently have nothing better to do than troll my journal in an attempt to restart old arguments not related to the topic at the hand. That problem has now been addressed and will not be happening again.

The original journal entry was about Google's new "everything" sidebar. You can see an example of that sidebar here. I regard this as as a sad attempt to copy Bing at the expense of the minimalist interface that made Google famous. As yet Google is not providing a way to opt-out of this new "feature". Several people have taken matters into their hands. halcyon1234 posted a greasemonkey script in the original journal entry I did about this story.

I hope that Google does eventually provide an opt-out so such measures aren't necessary. The everything sidebar might be useful for some people but it contributes exactly nothing to the search results as far as I'm concerned. If the comments on Google's forums and other sites are any indication I'm not alone in this belief.

Canadian pre-orders started today.

64 GB WiFi version ordered, should be here by May 28. No need for the 3G version, I can tether with MyWi on the iPhone.

My dad picked up the similar model on a trip to the US last week. Was playing with it on the weekend, awesome device. Perhaps not magical but still most impressive.

I thought about not writing this since the OK City Bombing occurred on the anniversary of Waco. However, in doing additional research into this topic, things have come up that must be said, and I believe that it is the patriotic duty of every American to consider these problems and strive to get our elected representatives to fix them. And whatever McVeigh's motives in the Oklahoma City Bombing, even if he was outraged at the atrocities committed by our government (which I doubt), he has hurt the cause of reform more than anything since.

First let me make one thing very clear. I have no inherent sympathy for white racists like Randy Weaver, nor do I have a great deal of sympathy for David Koresh. Neither man would be eligible to be my friend though for different reasons. Each I would have the sense to stay away from. However, as long as we strive to live in a nation ruled by laws, we must strive against the sort of excesses that were perpetrated against them by the government of the USA. Rampant lawlessness on the part of the FBI and BATF, and a military approach to domestic law enforcement have done great damage to my country, and threaten to do more as the "war on terror" slowly blurs the lines between domestic and international police actions.

Rule of law means that everyone, no matter how troublesome of character, is not subject to arbitrary and capricious attempts to deprive them of life, liberty, or property. Every American should read everything he/she can on these incidents and lobby Congress to make appropriate reforms. Furthemore this is not and should not be a partisan issue. The same problems that occurred at Ruby Ridge when George H W Bush was president occurred later at Waco when Bill Clinton had assumed that post.

A second important point is that while I find white racism (of the Aryan Nations type) very much a problem, it is well established that Randy Weaver was a law abiding citizen who never so much as got a traffic ticket prior to attempts by a government informant (who was paid per conviction) to railroad him. David Kopel has argued in his book, "No more Wacos" that one of the fundamental problems here was that the government was frequently paying informants on a contingency basis, and that this was encouraging entrapment of the sort that the jury found to have happened during the trial (Randy Weaver was acquitted on all counts except one count of failing to appear to stand trial). Kopel details abuse after abuse of government power in the Ruby Ridge incident. In the freely available chapter, however, a number of important details are missing which makes the incident even more problematic. In particular he glosses over the shoot to kill orders which were apparently to some extent already in place before the FBI arrived at the scene (given that the dogs were shot at by marshals prior). He also glosses over the allegations prior to the stand off that the Weavers fired at news helicopters (which was denied by everyone other than law enforcement).

Overall the picture that Kopel draws is of a law abiding citizen, albeit a white supremacist, who was railroaded for crimes he didn't commit, and improperly advised by judges and law enforcement, so that the fatal confrontation became inevitable. Unfortunately, as Harvey Silverglate documents in his book, "Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent," this approach to federal law enforcement is quite common regardless of the type of crime alleged. The feds want convictions and tend to apply enormous pressure to get them even when they are clearly wrong, or have to stretch laws to the breaking point to get them. Silverglate is a veteran civil libertarian having done prestigious work at the ACLU and EFF, as well as founding FIRE.

On to Waco. Waco still stands as the largest massacre of Americans by Americans since Wounded Knee. In this case, 82 individuals, including 25 children, lost their lives in a military assault on a civilian compound in Texas, in 1993. The problems were the same, however: trumped up charges (many of which were fabricated out of whole cloth), excessive force including substantial evidence that law enforcement officers fired from helicopters prior to the ground raid commencing, and the overall conviction that military tactics were the appropriate method for dealing with domestic law enforcement situations.

In an Akron Law Review article, Can Soldiers Be Peace Officers, Kopel again takes up the issue of Waco and discusses the use of military tactics, as well as the close and in some cases illegal connections between the military and law enforcement agencies in that raid. In particular, it's worth noting that both Bradley and Abrams tanks were used by the FBI in this raid. Kopel's clear-headed evaluation of the situation, concluding that Koresh was probably mentally ill, and evaluating the issues in terms of how both sides reacted.

Of particular importance here though is Kopel's discussion of the evidence that the BATF officers began the raid not by approaching the front door but by strafing the roof of the dwelling with machine pistol fire from helicopters. The evidence is well discussed in Kopel's piece is interesting because it comes from a number of different sources and suggests that a military outlook was at issue even from the start. Assuming this is the case, then after already being fired at with no initial option to surrender, the Branch Davidians could have reasonably feared for their lives and assumed that the BAFT agents were coming in with lethal force.

The picture Kopel paints here is once again the same FBI unit which caused the problems at Ruby Ridge making the same mistakes all over, but with much larger stakes and with much more force.

I agree with Kopel that we need to work on demilitarizing our law enforcement, returning them to a proper "officer of the peace" status. This is becoming more important as the "war on terror" progresses. If you want to do something about it, write your congressmen urging reform of the Posse Comitatus Act, asking for a clear barrier where no military personnel or equipment can be used for domestic law enforcement, whether borrowed or rented from the military, and urge that the act be expanded to prevent use of the Navy and Marines in domestic law enforcement as well.

Please note, this is not a criticism of the ideals of network neutrality but rather of specific proposals. In general, I think it is important to ensure that ISP's are not blocking content for arbitrary reasons. However, in some cases, they may want to block content (with the customer's permission or in the customer's interest) and/or shape the traffic to prevent some individuals from saturating upstream links. Indeed, I think there are a number of reasons why ISP's would legitimately depart from the ideals of network neutrality without sacrificing the core benefits those ideals provide. The main areas of obvious departure include:

• Blocking of network ports relative to security risks but with few legitimate uses, provided a customer can request non-blocked service
• Blocking of known malware based on deep packet inspection (my ISP does this).
• Utilizing traffic shaping and queuing in order to ensure that the main uses of an ISP continue to perform well.

These approaches are aimed at protecting users either from common mistakes that non-technically-minded users are likely to make or from compromised nodes of the network (viruses etc). A second main goal is to ensure reasonable customer satisfaction by ensuring that the most frequent applications of internet-based technologies perform adequately regardless of the behavior of other users. We do not need to treat a virus the same way as a web page request in order to get the primary benefits of network neutrality, and overly broad proposals would have the effect of limiting ISP choice in how to provide properly for customers. Therefore I would suggest that network neutrality should therefore be seen as excluding the following forms of broadband discrimination:

• Blocking of network traffic for reasons of security, providing that a customer can opt-out of blocking rules
• Blocking of known works and viruses, whether or not a customer can opt-out
• Traffic shaping aimed specifically at ensuring that a small group of customers does not monopolize upstream links provided that performance is not degraded beyond available bandwidth (after higher priority queues are cleared)

FWIW, I don't see a lot of net neutrality proponents rushing to ban these sorts of practices. If we can exclude these practices from net neutrality-oriented legislation, I would be quite happy.