There is an old expression: If you trust the government, you clearly failed history.
Americans are not meant to trust the government. Americans were never meant to trust the government. Trusting the government is unAmerican. This fundamental principle is baked into the founding DNA of the nation. The founders understood how dangerous the power of government was, necessary, perhaps, unavoidable even, but terribly dangerous.
To that end, James Madison wrote a constitution that specifically constrained the new Federal Government to clearly delineated, restricted, limited, and enumerated powers. The response from the several States? Not good enough, and we don't trust you. . We need a Bill of Rights.
Federalists like Madison and Hamilton argued that the Constitution did not need a bill of rights. The powers delegated to the Federal Government were explicitly limited and the people and the states kept all other power. The Anti-Federalists (who eventually won out - or at least won a compromise) held that a bill of rights was
necessary in order to safeguard individual liberty. Why? Because the Constitution is not good enough, and we don't trust you. We want it in writing.
So Madison swallowed his pride, plagiarized George Mason (Virginia Declaration of Rights), and drafted up a package of 12 amendments to satisfy the various states. Ten of those amendments became the first ten amendments which we now know of as the bill of rights, the first actually became the 27th amendment. The last one dealt with making certain that congressional districts didn't get to large and was never adopted.
Here is the key thing though. The Bill of Rights does not establish or create ANY rights. Everyone from the most ardent Federalist to most vehement Anti-Federalist agreed on this principle. The rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights were just that, enumerated. Just as the Virginia Declaration of Rights didn't create them but declared rights. They already existed. Fully formed, like Athena from Zeuz's head.
These rights, be they freedom of speech, or religion; the right to keep and bear arms; to be secure in ones papers and possessions; the right to be judged by ones peers; or to be free of cruel and unusual punishments... These are not granted by the constitution. These are pre-existing, fundamental, inalienable, inseparable, basic rights of the People. All people. Wherever they are and whomever they might be. Not American Rights. Universal ones. From the single mother in Modesto to the goat herder in Uzbekistan.
Any other interpretation is a lie. A falsehood. Incongruous with the historical record. And when a government claims otherwise? Not good enough, we don't trust you, we never will.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019
And away again
Ok. So I sold the D-03R-12 to a musician who was in town just for two days. Band is from North Carolina, touring through the country in a beat up van.
Apparently they had a gig at the MIM Sunday Night.
Gave him an outstanding deal. Hopefully that should prevent the guitar from returning.
Apparently they had a gig at the MIM Sunday Night.
Gave him an outstanding deal. Hopefully that should prevent the guitar from returning.
Friday, December 21, 2018
They keep coming back
Sold two nice wooden guitars to a fellow on the Larrivee forum:
D-03R-12 (Rosewood Dreadnought)
LS-03 (Semi-Custom Forum Guitar)
They get there, and he says they are Fabulous. Woot! Customer is happy so I go ahead and order a custom Emerald.
Two days later he wants to return one of the guitars. And of course, it's the 12 string. What is it with buyer's remorse and 12 Strings?
I offered him a discount, but in the end told him that as long as he ate the shipping both ways I'd take it back. Arrived today.
No more long distance selling of 12-strings. If anyone local wants a killer deal on a solid rosewood 12 let me know.
D-03R-12 (Rosewood Dreadnought)
LS-03 (Semi-Custom Forum Guitar)
They get there, and he says they are Fabulous. Woot! Customer is happy so I go ahead and order a custom Emerald.
Two days later he wants to return one of the guitars. And of course, it's the 12 string. What is it with buyer's remorse and 12 Strings?
I offered him a discount, but in the end told him that as long as he ate the shipping both ways I'd take it back. Arrived today.
No more long distance selling of 12-strings. If anyone local wants a killer deal on a solid rosewood 12 let me know.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Glorius Day - Janus
Janus wins at the SCOTUS!
I hate unions, with a passion. But the one thing I hate more than unions is being FORCED to join one against my will.
Forced unionism prima facie runs smack up against the 1st Amendment's protection of the right of association. And no, the whole, "well you don't have to join the union, just pay us a bunch of money anyway" isn't a sufficient fig leaf.
Janus was decided on Free Speech though. Sure, forcing someone to pay for political activities he opposes is also clearly unconstitutional (Despite what 4 robed activists might otherwise think) but it's a secondary argument. If you can't force me to associate, you can't force me to pay.
Regardless, it's a major victory for freedom and the Constitution.
As for the Unions. Bite me!
Now my dad loved the union, but they actually earned that. They earned it by funding their own retirement system. They earned it, not demanded it.
For everyone who thinks a union is a good thing, earn it. Because it's going to be voluntary association, and if you want people to associate, you better make it worth their while.
I hate unions, with a passion. But the one thing I hate more than unions is being FORCED to join one against my will.
Forced unionism prima facie runs smack up against the 1st Amendment's protection of the right of association. And no, the whole, "well you don't have to join the union, just pay us a bunch of money anyway" isn't a sufficient fig leaf.
Janus was decided on Free Speech though. Sure, forcing someone to pay for political activities he opposes is also clearly unconstitutional (Despite what 4 robed activists might otherwise think) but it's a secondary argument. If you can't force me to associate, you can't force me to pay.
Regardless, it's a major victory for freedom and the Constitution.
As for the Unions. Bite me!
Now my dad loved the union, but they actually earned that. They earned it by funding their own retirement system. They earned it, not demanded it.
For everyone who thinks a union is a good thing, earn it. Because it's going to be voluntary association, and if you want people to associate, you better make it worth their while.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Frustration - 12 String Edition
A guy I have known for years on-line posted a want-to-buy add on the Acoustic Guitar Forum for a Guild F-212. This is Guilds "Small Jumbo" body size. Same size as a Taylor GA, though obviously Guild was decades before Taylor.
I happen to have one. A nice 1973 F-212. Condition is excellent other than a few bits of missing finish on the back of the headstock. Basically outstanding for a guitar of this age and vintage.
It may need a neck reset. It's borderline. The guy looking for an F-212 doesn't care if it needs a neck reset if the price is right. I offer to sell him mine for $850 plus actual shipping. That's a very fair price assuming it needs a $400-500 neck reset. With a good neck angle these are worth $1200-1500.
Sent him a bunch of pictures and measurements and he jumps on the deal.
Packed everything up nice and tight in a proper guitar box I got from Elderly Instruments. Went to UPS and they said $122. I'm like "your online calculator said 80". Their response, "I don't know man, says $122."
"So... I can drive home, pay on line, drop it back off with the shipper and save 45 bucks?"
"I guess so.. We close at 8"
Got mad and went to FedEx. Came to $77.18
Nervous as all get out shipping a 45 year old instrument from AZ to OR. It should be ok, but FedEx...
Anyway, it arrived safe and sound today.
And... my buyer has a problem. He thinks the bridge has been shaved and that's going to be an issue, so he want to ship it back. I'm of the opinion that the bridge has not been shaved, and even if he needed to change the bridge when he has the neck reset that's going to be less than the cost of shipping it back. Remove bridge, glue new one, that's not an expensive job.
But I think I'm going to just end up taking it back, with the "buyer" paying shipping both ways.
People are hard.
I happen to have one. A nice 1973 F-212. Condition is excellent other than a few bits of missing finish on the back of the headstock. Basically outstanding for a guitar of this age and vintage.
It may need a neck reset. It's borderline. The guy looking for an F-212 doesn't care if it needs a neck reset if the price is right. I offer to sell him mine for $850 plus actual shipping. That's a very fair price assuming it needs a $400-500 neck reset. With a good neck angle these are worth $1200-1500.
Sent him a bunch of pictures and measurements and he jumps on the deal.
Packed everything up nice and tight in a proper guitar box I got from Elderly Instruments. Went to UPS and they said $122. I'm like "your online calculator said 80". Their response, "I don't know man, says $122."
"So... I can drive home, pay on line, drop it back off with the shipper and save 45 bucks?"
"I guess so.. We close at 8"
Got mad and went to FedEx. Came to $77.18
Nervous as all get out shipping a 45 year old instrument from AZ to OR. It should be ok, but FedEx...
Anyway, it arrived safe and sound today.
And... my buyer has a problem. He thinks the bridge has been shaved and that's going to be an issue, so he want to ship it back. I'm of the opinion that the bridge has not been shaved, and even if he needed to change the bridge when he has the neck reset that's going to be less than the cost of shipping it back. Remove bridge, glue new one, that's not an expensive job.
But I think I'm going to just end up taking it back, with the "buyer" paying shipping both ways.
People are hard.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
The Disappointment of Flake
Thoughts on Mr. Flake's senate speech:
I watched my Junior Senator give a long speech today, where he lambasted the "Tone" from the top of the government, i.e. Mr. Trump. Specifically he called out the present "coarseness of our national dialogue".
Well I have to agree. I don't like it either. I would much rather have someone with the Class and Eloquence of Mr. Reagan sitting up there. I'd rather have someone with the honesty and integrity of Mr. Carter, though certainly not his horrifically flawed policies or politics. I understand that JFK could be very inspirational. I can't think of a president who sang Amazing Grace better than Mr. Obama...
In the last election I wanted Cruz, or Walker, or Johnson, or even Rubio. I certainly didn't want this guy either. But to somehow pretend that the coarseness in the national dialog is somehow new? That's disingenuous at best, and a bald-faced lie at the worst.
I watched a president on national TV tell American small business owners "You didn't build that". I watched him berate the majority of the country as being bitter people who "Cling to Guns and Religion". I watched his state department hold a press conference and blame the murder of an American Diplomat and his security team on a freaking You-Tube video. I heard the former Speaker of the House state that the only way to find out what was in a bill constituting the largest government power grab since they made it illegal to slice bread was to actually "pass it to find out what's in it" for goodness sake.
Yet somehow the coarseness of our national dialog is somehow new? And somehow it's Mr. Trump's fault? He's certainly continued it, but anyone who thinks this is new has not been Paying Attention.
Frankly I don't care what the orange buffoon tweets. He's not the problem. You are the problem Mr. Flake. You. You and the other 51 senators with an R behind your name.
Because you made promises to the American People. You made promises to your constituents. A lot of promises. You promised smaller government. You promised a repeal of the ACA. Tax Reform. Restoration of Civil Liberties. Gun Rights. Regulatory Reform. Entitlement reform.
I haven't seen a lot of legislation Mr. Flake. In fact, other than one very high profile vote to confirm Justice Gorsuch (thank you by the way), I haven't seen much of anything. So the problem is emphatically not the "tone from the top". The problem appears to be that your promises don't amount to a bucket of warm spit.
Instead of whining and trying to play tone police with the executive, how about you do your Damn JOB. Pass a bill. It doesn't even have to be a big and grandiose one. A single sentence bill repealing the unconstitutional individual mandate. You know, a start, baby-steps. Anything. I'll even write it for you.
Do something for the American People. Forget about the tone from the top or the coarseness of the dialog. That's not important. It's not important because I guarantee that no matter what the tone from the top, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will do everything in their power to prevent us from moving the nation forward. They will do everything possible to cling to "power and the religion of large government" to paraphrase the last guy at the top.
They, and their media lackeys, will move mountains to prevent this president, or your party, from getting a "win" no matter the cost to the American people or constitution.
So here's a idea for you: Man up and do the job we elected you to do.
I watched my Junior Senator give a long speech today, where he lambasted the "Tone" from the top of the government, i.e. Mr. Trump. Specifically he called out the present "coarseness of our national dialogue".
Well I have to agree. I don't like it either. I would much rather have someone with the Class and Eloquence of Mr. Reagan sitting up there. I'd rather have someone with the honesty and integrity of Mr. Carter, though certainly not his horrifically flawed policies or politics. I understand that JFK could be very inspirational. I can't think of a president who sang Amazing Grace better than Mr. Obama...
In the last election I wanted Cruz, or Walker, or Johnson, or even Rubio. I certainly didn't want this guy either. But to somehow pretend that the coarseness in the national dialog is somehow new? That's disingenuous at best, and a bald-faced lie at the worst.
I watched a president on national TV tell American small business owners "You didn't build that". I watched him berate the majority of the country as being bitter people who "Cling to Guns and Religion". I watched his state department hold a press conference and blame the murder of an American Diplomat and his security team on a freaking You-Tube video. I heard the former Speaker of the House state that the only way to find out what was in a bill constituting the largest government power grab since they made it illegal to slice bread was to actually "pass it to find out what's in it" for goodness sake.
Yet somehow the coarseness of our national dialog is somehow new? And somehow it's Mr. Trump's fault? He's certainly continued it, but anyone who thinks this is new has not been Paying Attention.
Frankly I don't care what the orange buffoon tweets. He's not the problem. You are the problem Mr. Flake. You. You and the other 51 senators with an R behind your name.
Because you made promises to the American People. You made promises to your constituents. A lot of promises. You promised smaller government. You promised a repeal of the ACA. Tax Reform. Restoration of Civil Liberties. Gun Rights. Regulatory Reform. Entitlement reform.
I haven't seen a lot of legislation Mr. Flake. In fact, other than one very high profile vote to confirm Justice Gorsuch (thank you by the way), I haven't seen much of anything. So the problem is emphatically not the "tone from the top". The problem appears to be that your promises don't amount to a bucket of warm spit.
Instead of whining and trying to play tone police with the executive, how about you do your Damn JOB. Pass a bill. It doesn't even have to be a big and grandiose one. A single sentence bill repealing the unconstitutional individual mandate. You know, a start, baby-steps. Anything. I'll even write it for you.
Do something for the American People. Forget about the tone from the top or the coarseness of the dialog. That's not important. It's not important because I guarantee that no matter what the tone from the top, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will do everything in their power to prevent us from moving the nation forward. They will do everything possible to cling to "power and the religion of large government" to paraphrase the last guy at the top.
They, and their media lackeys, will move mountains to prevent this president, or your party, from getting a "win" no matter the cost to the American people or constitution.
So here's a idea for you: Man up and do the job we elected you to do.
A year later and still barking up the wrong tree
I am SO DONE with leftists claiming that anyone who disagrees with them on their nutty "big government is the answer to everything" is a racist. Grow up. The only folks who ever put people in camps were DEMOCRATS. But folks who can't read the Constitution can't read history books either.
Free advice if you ever want to win an election ever again. Every time you start frothing at the mouth and claiming that folks who want to cut taxes and government spending or limit government to it's actual limited and defined jurisdiction is a racist: You LOSE. That's one of the reasons your side lost the last election. (Nominating someone even more crooked than LBJ certainly didn't help)
I'm sure it's great virtue signalling to the fringe, but to the rest of us it just makes you look unhinged.
You want to know what most folks want from the Federal Government? They Want To Be Left Alone. They want them out of their lives, out of their livelihoods, out of their wallets, out of their bedrooms, out of their business, and out of the way. That's not racist, that's America.
So go ahead and double down on the hate speech. Because that's how you lose, and keep on losing.
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
And here we go again - Las Vegas Edition.
Now is not the time to discuss gun control.
- If not now then when?
Not when, where.
- Where? What do you mean where?
Where. The place. The proper location. The proper location to discuss gun control is in History Class. Yes, History Class. Along with other failed ideas that belong on the Dustheap of History along with the War on Drugs, Jim Crow, Internment Camps, Anti-Miscegenation Laws, and Central Planning. A failed utopian ideal that causes more harm than good.
Or, I suppose we could try again...
We can double down on bad, failed, policies. Just one more time. One more chance. Maybe, if we just tried harder this time... Used better camps, or more efficient gas chambers.
Maybe this time, we could make people... better.
Gun contol has never been about guns, always about control. No gun law would have stopped this guy. No gun law would have stopped any of the last 20 years of mass shooting events. All but one of which took place in posted Gun Free Zones.
It's time to admit that not only is gun control a colossal failure with respect to the stated goals, but that all it has done is to create more defenseless victims.
How man women have been killed by "waiting periods"? How many of the poor have been killed by Saturday Night Special laws. How many children killed due to continued demonizing of inanimate objects instead of teaching them how they work? How many families murdered due to secure storage laws?
How many more Americans are you willing to see die to support your precious fantasy that more government control could possibly do good if only we tried even harder this time?
No. Gun control belongs on the ashheap of history along with eugenics, the Japanese internment camps, gas chambers, "separate but equal", poll taxes, and every other racist policy that we have sadly invented in our long history of humanity.
It's time to draw the line. Time to say Enough is Enough, Time to stare evil in the face and announce, This Far, No Further! Time to claw back inch by inch every bit of freedom we have surrendered in the past 104 years.
Now is not the time to discuss Gun Control. Now is the time to dismantle it.
- If not now then when?
Not when, where.
- Where? What do you mean where?
Where. The place. The proper location. The proper location to discuss gun control is in History Class. Yes, History Class. Along with other failed ideas that belong on the Dustheap of History along with the War on Drugs, Jim Crow, Internment Camps, Anti-Miscegenation Laws, and Central Planning. A failed utopian ideal that causes more harm than good.
Or, I suppose we could try again...
We can double down on bad, failed, policies. Just one more time. One more chance. Maybe, if we just tried harder this time... Used better camps, or more efficient gas chambers.
Maybe this time, we could make people... better.
Gun contol has never been about guns, always about control. No gun law would have stopped this guy. No gun law would have stopped any of the last 20 years of mass shooting events. All but one of which took place in posted Gun Free Zones.
It's time to admit that not only is gun control a colossal failure with respect to the stated goals, but that all it has done is to create more defenseless victims.
How man women have been killed by "waiting periods"? How many of the poor have been killed by Saturday Night Special laws. How many children killed due to continued demonizing of inanimate objects instead of teaching them how they work? How many families murdered due to secure storage laws?
How many more Americans are you willing to see die to support your precious fantasy that more government control could possibly do good if only we tried even harder this time?
No. Gun control belongs on the ashheap of history along with eugenics, the Japanese internment camps, gas chambers, "separate but equal", poll taxes, and every other racist policy that we have sadly invented in our long history of humanity.
It's time to draw the line. Time to say Enough is Enough, Time to stare evil in the face and announce, This Far, No Further! Time to claw back inch by inch every bit of freedom we have surrendered in the past 104 years.
Now is not the time to discuss Gun Control. Now is the time to dismantle it.
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