Archive for January 24th, 2013

More people who deserve your support.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

I’m not putting this under “endorsements” because, technically, it isn’t one. I haven’t used the products of this company yet.

But I’d like to suggest that Guntag Signature Seasonings deserves your support.

Here’s the story: Guntag makes a lot of their money exhibiting at various outdoor shows. One of the shows they exhibit at is the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, which draws more than 200,000 people. This is a big event in terms of Guntag’s finances.

Well, this year, the people who run ESOS decided that they were going to ban modern sporting rifles from the show. This was a Bad Idea. Exhibitors, sponsors, and people who were doing promotional appearances all pulled out of the show. Smith and Wesson pulled out. Cabela’s pulled out. Ruger pulled out.

And Guntag pulled out, too.

We have made the costly decision to withdraw because it is the right thing to do. We are a young company that relies on this one venue to create our operating capital for the year; however we cannot support uninformed businesses caving to political pressures caused by broadly politicized events. We proudly support the 2nd Amendment in the capacity for which it was intended; the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. Our freedom to do so was not for hunting or competition shooting, but protection for law abiding citizens.

ESOS has now been postponed, but Guntag pulled out before the announcement was made. They took a stand on principle, even though it is going to hurt them.

I don’t have money to buy stuff from Guntag right now, but I can give them something to thank them for their stand. And that’s publicity here. If you’ve got the money, why not order up some seasonings from Guntag? I will if my finances ever improve; in the meantime, I’m willing to give them some free publicity, for whatever that may be worth.

Guntag guys: if you’re reading this and want some free ad space here, contact me. I’ll be happy to give it to you.

(Hattip on this: Borepatch gave me the idea for this post, and Shall Not Be Questioned has been all over the ESOS story like flies on a cow’s head at a Damien Hirst installation.)

Posted in Food, Guns | Comments Closed

Hot from the police blotter.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

I go out for a couple of hours to run some errands. I come back, and I find out that the police have arrested Russell Erxleben, who was somewhat famous as a UT football player. (He actually still shares the record for longest field goal kicked in NCAA history.)

Of course, anybody can be arrested; there’s no shortage of domestic violence or DWI arrests among former football players at any level. But Erxleben is charged with running a Ponzi scheme: that’s something you don’t see every day.

The indictment said Erxleben used several companies, including WALTEC Consultants, LRE Holdings and the MDM Group, to promote investments in fraudulent ventures, mainly in post-WWI German government gold bearer bonds and in work purportedly by Paul Gauguin, the famous late 19th-early 20th century artist.

“post-WWI German government gold bearer bonds”? That sounds like something straight out of Mission: Impossible.

Also worth noting:

In 1999, Erxleben pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and securities fraud charges stemming from a foreign currency trading scam in which hundreds of investors lost more than $30 million.

You know, I’m not Mister Sophisticated F’ing Investor here, but I’d like to think that before I gave someone $60,000 to invest in “post-WWI German government gold bearer bonds” that were purportedly worth $350,000, I’d maybe, just maybe, do A FREAKING BACKGROUND CHECK ON THE PERSON I WAS GIVING THE MONEY TO. And if that check turned up something odd, like the fact that this person got out of prison in 2005 after being convicted in a “foreign currency trading scam”, more than likely I WOULDN’T GIVE THEM ANY OF MY DAMN MONEY!

But that’s just me. As I said, I’m not a Sophisticated Investor.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 24, 2013.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Obit watch: Linda Riss Pugach. You may not have heard of her, but she was at the center of one of the most sensational crimes of the 1950s. Miss Riss was 22 years old and was dating a married lawyer, Burton Pugach. He kept promising to get a divorce, she kept pressing him, he got fed up and hired people to throw lye in her face. Miss Riss was blinded. Mr. Pugach was charged, convicted and spent 14 years in prison.

But wait, there’s more! Mr. Pugach’s wife divorced him while he was in prison. After he got out in 1974, he married Miss Riss, and they remained married until she died. There was a documentary about the case in 2007, “Crazy Love“, that featured interviews with both Mr. and Mrs. Pugach; I have not seen it, but it is apparently available from Amazon for instant viewing.

Oh, look! The lying sack of shit Joe Manchin is starting to feel the heat!

As a hunter with an A rating from the National Rifle Association, Mr. Manchin gave advocates for new weapons laws reason for optimism after he said last month that gun firepower and magazine capacity might need to be limited.
But now, Mr. Manchin, who affirmed his support for gun rights by running a campaign commercial in 2010 showing him firing a rifle into an environmental bill, says he is not so sure. One of his local offices has been picketed, and even some of his most thoughtful supporters are cautioning him that stronger background checks are about all the gun control they can stomach.

More:

After talking with the group for nearly two hours, Mr. Manchin left the meeting saying he was not at all comfortable with supporting the assault weapons ban favored by many of his colleagues in Congress.

And it isn’t just Manchin:

Of far greater concern are Democrats who are up for re-election in 2014. Those include senators like Max Baucus of Montana, who was awarded an A+ rating from the N.R.A. Mr. Baucus has worded his comments on the subject carefully, bracketing them with gun rights-friendly language, like saying the “culture of violence” needs to be seriously examined along with any changes to the law.
There is Senator Mark Begich of Alaska, who has said flatly that he would not support a new assault weapons ban, and Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, who initially came out in support of the ban but has been more circumspect recently, saying in an interview last week that he would want to see the language of any such legislation first.

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks. If you need help finding your senators and representatives, you’re welcome to email me.

Back in August, I noted the reversal of the murder convictions in the case of Baithe Diop. The other shoe in that case has dropped: three of the men, who had been convicted of murdering Denise Raymond and spent 17 years in prison, were released last night. Ms. Raymond was an executive with Federal Express: the prosecution’s original theory of the crime was that her murder and Mr. Diop’s were tied together. (The other two men in the case were convicted of Mr. Diop’s murder, and had their convictions overturned in August, but were not convicted in the Raymond murder.)

The N.C.A.A. said it uncovered evidence that its investigators contracted with a criminal defense lawyer for the booster at the center of the Miami case to obtain information they should not have been able to access. The N.C.A.A. had been examining allegations that the booster, Nevin Shapiro, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, as well as other benefits, to dozens of Miami athletes.

Wow. When the NCAA president is calling the conduct of his own people “shocking” and “stunning”, yeah, there’s a problem.

As I have stated before, I Am Not A Lawyer. So perhaps there is a gap in my understanding. Let me see if someone can clarify it for me: on what authority does a judge order someone to stay out of an entire city?

[State Rep. Matt] Krause, one of the chamber’s more conservative freshmen, filed House Bill 627 to prevent federal gun regulations — such as expanded background checks and limits on magazine sizes, now under debate in Washington — from being enforced in Texas when a firearm is manufactured, sold and used within the state’s boundaries. If a gun never leaves Texas, it cannot be subject to federal interstate commerce laws, the bill says.

The Statesman suggests this bill may be unconstitutional. To which I say:

  1. Tenth Amendment, mofos!
  2. Oh, when we’re talking about guns, it’s unconstitutional and bad law. But when we’re talking about marijuana, all of the sudden, it’s okay for the states to have “medical marijuana” and “legalized marijuana”.

Can’t have it both ways, people.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Obits, Sports | 1 Comment »

Banana republicans watch: January 24, 2013.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

We haven’t had one of these in a while. Truth be told, things were moving slowly over the holidays.

But they are heating up: the trial of six former members of the Bell city council begins today. (Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and his assistant, Angela Spaccia, will be tried later this year.)

And how is the city of Bell doing?

The city’s general fund has been slashed to $12 million from $16 million, largely because a handful of highly paid employees are now gone, and the budget is balanced. Council meetings are streamed online in a city where the workings of government were once opaque. The city has cut fees for trash pickup, building permits and business licenses that had ballooned under Rizzo.

On the other hand, Bell also faces protracted litigation, on which it is spending an estimated $1.5 million a year.

“If all the litigation stuff were solved today, I’d tell you Bell has a bright future, and we can pay our bills,” said [Doug] Willmore [the new city manager – DB], who estimates he spends a third of his time on lawsuits. “There are all these things that could happen that could bankrupt the city.”
Among the worries, he said, is that Bell will be made to pay the legal fees of the former city leaders, who claim the city should foot the bill because their alleged misdeeds occurred as part of their official duties.
“That’s probably $5 million easily,” Willmore said.

More:

Willmore said that when he arrived, the city hadn’t reconciled a bank statement in two years. “Under Rizzo, the lack of accounting was just staggering,” he said. “I’ve inherited scandals before, but certainly nothing like this.

Also:

Bell still has the second-highest property tax in Los Angeles County, after only Beverly Hills, and a 10% utility tax, about twice that of most cities.

In spite of that, business owners say conditions in Bell have improved vastly: “…a new restaurant was recently able to obtain a license just two days after an inspection from the county health department — a process that could have taken three months in the Rizzo era”

If they keep this up, and can get past the legal issues, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bell turn into one of the few bright spots in California.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Your gun show loophole in action.

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Back in December, a man walked into an Austin gun show.

He was with three other guys, was carrying a rifle and a shotgun, and

A police officer working security at the show said in the affidavit that the man carrying the shotgun “acted nervous” and did not know much about the shotgun.

The man sold the shotgun to a dealer for $575. Apparently, after the sale took place, the dealer asked the APD officers running security to run “a serial check that showed that the gun did not belong to Benitez or any of the accompanying men, the affidavit stated“.

So that’s kind of interesting: it doesn’t say explicitly that the gun was stolen and showed up on a hot sheet, but that they were somehow able to check the serial number and determine ownership. Texas does not have any kind of registration or licensing for simple possession of a shotgun or rifle, so I’m not clear on what “a serial check” would have done unless the gun was on the hot sheet.

(I’m also wondering what kind of shotgun this was, if a dealer at the gun show paid $575 for it.)

The gentleman’s stories changed several times: his grandfather owned it, his father owned it, he bought it from someone in the neighborhood for $130.

One of the men that was with Benitez at Saxet said that he found the rifle at a Marble Falls house he was working on and took it, according to the affidavit.

The police confiscated both the rifle and shotgun, and made the gentleman give the dealer back his money.

He is currently charged with “unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon” but not, apparently, theft, and is being held on $20,000 bail.

Sure seems to me like the current system worked. So much for that “gun show loophole”.

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 1 Comment »