Washington, D.C. gun ban struck down

I've missed a lot of things that I wanted to post about over the past month or so, but I might as well start here now that I'm back rather than inundate everyone with my take on old news. So instead, here's a story that just broke today.

Washington Compost, text of the court decision. (Warning: 195 kilobyte PDF.)

Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (how's that for a mouthful?) overturned the decision of the District Court for D.C. (the full title of which is a similar mouthful) in the case of Parker v. District of Columbia, in which the plaintiffs were denied their Constitutional right to bear firearms by the lower court. The appeals court overturned the district court's decision, declaring Washington, D.C.'s 30 year old, near-total ban on firearms to be unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, the D.C. Circuit covers only Washington itself, not any of the states. (If Chicago's gun ban had been struck down in this manner instead, gun bans would be illegal throughout the entire 7th Circuit, but this covers only the capital city.) I don't really see the point of a circuit court that covers only one city (where do they circulate between? Courthouses on opposite sides of the District?), but there it is. Nobody ever expected government to make sense.

The city is likely to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court, but I don't know whether or not they'll agree to hear it. The Court has more conservative justices now, but to quote a friend of mine, "the Country Club Republicans especially tend to have a certain elegant disdain for the rabble bearing arms." We'll just have to wait this out and see.

In the meantime, I feel like celebrating a little. Party time.

It's official. Hugo Chavez is now a dictator.

Well, I haven't posted in awhile, but this has jolted me back into bloggerdom.

BBC, The Times

Venezuela's governmental assembly has granted President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for the next eighteen months. What this means, in rough terms, is that for the next year and a half, the gigantic socialist weasel gets to do pretty much whatever he wants.

What he wants is to nationalize (read: steal the resources of) the oil and gas industries, rob those who have earned affluence in order to give it to those who have not, and remove term limits on the Presidency so that he can effectively remain in power indefinitely. Given that he was just handed nearly absolute power, I would not be surprised in the least if he decreed himself more time to rule by decree at the end of the 18 months.

To quote Revenge of the Sith: "So this is how democracy dies. To thunderous applause." Though it would be entirely accurate to say that, ironically enough, this is an example of democracy (as opposed to republicanism as in the government system, not the party) in action.

National Guardsmen overrun by gunmen on Mexican border

I wondered when this would happen back in March, when the National Guard was first ordered to the border. Seems my question has been answered.

Breaking from local Arizona News 12

A patrol of four National Guardsmen was overrun by armed men at the border somewhere between Nogales (AZ or Mexico; they're right across from each other) and Lukeville, AZ, a 120 mile stretch of desert in the western part of the state's border with Mexico on the night of January 3rd. No one was hurt and the gunmen retreated back to Mexico when Border Patrol reinforcements were called. It's unclear whether shots were fired. The Guard is currently deployed along the border on orders from the Arizona governor, and is in an observation and support role, supplementing the Border Patrol rather than directly acting against border incursions.

I will post updates later today as information warrants. I haven't slept all night and am too tired to go hunting for additional sources at the moment.

Update: MSNBC now has a more detailed article up.

Historical perspective on Saddam Hussein's execution

I'm making this post to link to this entry in the American Thinker blog. I have nothing further to add.

Thanks to John Cox and Allen Forkum for bringing this to my attention.

Happy New Year!

Just ringing in 2007, and resolving to post to this blog more. Happy New Year, everybody!