Unconfirmed report: Federal ID no good for booze

Seen on Facebook: "FYI: The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has informed us that US Passports are no longer acceptable identification to be served alcohol. Please make sure you bring your valid state ID, regardless of age."


I haven't been able to find this anywhere else yet to confirm, but if it is true this is ridiculous.  Even more ridiculous are those people who seem to think this is alright.  Now, some background information:  Alaska does label some people as alcohol restricted, typically for those convicted of DUIs.  The person is prohibited from purchasing alcohol and this is indicated on their driver's license.


So, if true, this is infringing on me to better keep track of criminals.  And apparently people are fine with it because "everyone has a driver's license."  Last I checked, one wasn't required to have a driver's license in this country.  Admittedly, this state has a very severe drinking problem.  But is this the way to fix it?  I don't think so.  One needs to address the social and economic roots of the problem.


Now, the ABCB's FAQ still states that "A passport issued by the United States or Foreign Government, an ID card issued by a United States Government agency , a drivers license issued by any of the 50 states or an identification card issued by the same state agency that issues drivers licenses. All "valid" identification must contain a photograph of the bearer and a statement of the bearer's age or date of birth."


Next question is, do they stop at passports?  What about military IDs?  Or any other ID card issued by government agencies?  Apparently federally issued ID isn't good enough!  I'll be keeping an eye on this to see what happens.


Side note:  When I was on the east coast visiting family, a friend and I went to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner.  We both had out of state licenses and were informed that they needed another form of identification proving that we really lived in that state.  At first they wanted photo ID.  What state issues multiple forms of photo identification (and I was NOT about to pull out my CCW permit, not in that hoplophobic state!).  They eventually accepted my military ID, which doesn't say a word about Alaska, and my friend's car insurance, which doesn't have a photo ID.  Bizarre!

Canada: Delicious Whisky

Some of my most popular posts here at the blog have dealt with Canada. Lest my readers think that I have nothing but ill will for our fellow frozen friends to the East and/or South, I do have appreciation for many things in Canada.

One of them is Canadian whisky. I don't think I've ever had a whisky from Canada that wasn't delicious. Right now I'm enjoying Crown Black, which is somewhat mass-market but nonetheless delicious.

Life is too short to drink cruddy booze.

Knives, Like Everyone Else

Due to our current state of confusion, finding my knife was difficult.  Fortunately Ebay had several images. Unlike most people I don't have a pocket knife.  This is a Cutco Drop-Point DD edge for field dressing all sorts of game.  I bought my knife little more than a year ago and it has helped skin a bear and an elk, plus many rabbits, grouse and ptarmigan.

Many people are skeptical of the serrated edge.  I certainly was, until the cutco rep who sold me the blade said he'd straighten the edge for free if I didn't like it.

I loved it.  As did everyone else - including the instructors - in my field dressing class.  I'm planning on getting it sharpened before our Kodiak hunt next spring, but that's mostly preventative.  This is one sweet knife.  We'll bring a few extras, particularly smaller turning blades, but I would be very confident going into a skinning job with this knife alone.

Cabbie Attacked

Our local anti-gun bigot highlighted a recent attack against a cabbie in Anchorage. The ADN reports that a man opened up on a cabbie at night with a shotgun.

Gwen would have us believe that the perp was a law abiding citizen. She actually also says, "Pro gun folks seem to actually believe that criminals are very careful to make sure that their guns are bought completely legally, and only THEN do they go making trouble." I think that Gwen has a distorted idea of "legally." When a prohibited person buys a gun in a private sale, that's illegal. When a prohibited person has a "clean" friend buy a gun for them at a store, that's illegal (straw sale). When a person steals a gun, that's illegal. When a person buys guns across state lines and then smuggles them into state, that's illegal too. When an unlicensed dealer engages "in the business" and sells guns to prohibited persons, then both people are committing crimes. Just because something happens and the perps are not caught does not make it "legal."

I have no illusions about where most criminals are getting their guns; most are just having friends straw buy them on their behalf. Others get them from illegal dealers who basically operate straw buy networks or by working with illegal unlicensed sellers. Only 10-15%, max, come from thefts from private citizens (that's per the ATF). That makes sense -- why would you bother to rob a house for guns when you can just have your "clean" girlfriend buy guns for you? Of course, one resists the easy jab to say that the ATF is also feeding the black market for guns through their "fast and furious" scandal.

In this case, the shotgun wielding attacker was likely a prohibited person. He had an extensive record, as reported by ADN:

His criminal record in Alaska includes three assault convictions since 2009, plus convictions for trespassing, theft and reckless endangerment. Authorities charged Blackwell last month with misdemeanor assault and a related count of "family violence," which means an assault committed with "knowledge or reckless disregard of the presence of a child or children in the home."

I kind of have to wonder why he's on the streets!

One also has to look at the weapon he used. We're constantly told that "assault rifles" which look scary and handguns need to be banned. Shotguns are almost always the last weapon to be banned, even in the UK, Canada, and Australia. But this crime occurred with a shotgun. Shotguns are actually highly effective weapons, especially at the close quarters which most criminals seem to operate.

Maybe the problem is criminal control, not gun control. The problem is certainly not legit law abiding citizens inadvertantly funneling guns to criminals through theft or private sales. The bigger problem is one of enforcement of existing laws--when the ATF, in charge of administering most of these laws, is actually part of the problem by encouraging dealers to sell to known straw buyers and having the FBI fudge NICS checks, then one has to wonder why we bother having the laws or the agency in the first place.

Disarmed.

Some of you might have heard about the gunman scare on Davis-Monthan AFB last Friday.  We've also talked before about how military bases disarm their people.  Through sheer coincidence, I left Friday to visit friends in Tucson who live on Davis-Monthan.  My plane landed at 10am.  We were allowed through the gate at 10:30, even though they'd locked the outgoing gates.  Why they allowed us in if they suspected an active shooter is beyond me.  At the time, we simply thought it was a random drill or something.  We went to drop off my bags and were considering going out for lunch when my friend's husband called and told us about the active shooter situation.  So here we are, stuck on base, with (as far as we knew at the time) some nutjob running around shooting people, and I had been disarmed by the government.

It was not a pleasant feeling.

We locked the doors, drew the curtains, and settled down with cheese and grapes to play several rounds of Dominion, all of which I lost horribly.  After the first few hours, I started to get suspicious.  I couldn't think of very many scenarios where an "active shooter" would last this long.  I started postulating other scenarios, including the one that we were later told was correct - there was never a gunman.  Someone saw someone carrying something and called it in.

Now of course I'm glad that there wasn't actually someone going nuts killing people.  But the helplessness I felt when I thought there was someone, and I had no way to defend myself just highlighted for me the ridiculous of all of these gun-free disarmament zones.  The only people disarmed are the law-abiding.  What right does the government have to deny me the right to defend myself?

My First Enhanced Pat-Down

Sounds like the title to a kids book, in this insane world we're living in.

Anyway, I got landed with it today.  Compared to this one, the one I had in Anchorage was all rainbows and puppies.  I had a longer post typed out, but honestly don't feel comfortable posting it here, so all you get is that it happened and I'm still all grossed out by it.  Uncool.

Odd End of the World Bedfellows

List of things/people that will survive the end of the world:

• Mormons
• Norwegian Agriculture
• The BBC
• Dick Cheney

And now, porn stars.

A spokesman for Van Nuys-based Pink Visual said the bunker will be “far more than a mere bomb shelter or subterranean survivalist enclave” with amenities such as multiple fully-stocked bars, an enormous performing stage and a sophisticated content production studio.

“Our goal is nothing less than to survive the apocalypse to come in comfort and luxury,” said Pink Visual spokesman Quentin Boyer...

Dragon Leatherworks - It's Here!

A few months ago I sent Dennis an email with some questions about a custom flatjack holster.  Not five minutes later he gave me a call and we chatted for a while.  He had no problems with the custom work at all and shortly thereafter I put my order in.  He shipped the holster Friday and I got it today!

Isn't it gorgeous?  I could conceal it, but why on earth would I want to when it looks this good?

I've only had the holster for a few minutes, so a full review will come later, but right now I'm very pleased.  As everyone else who has one of Dennis' holsters has said, this is some fine craftsmanship.  I'm looking forward to showing it off!

Quote of the Day: Bloomberg

"We just cannot continue to have these guns in the hands of kids who don't understand the value of human life"

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of NYC, following a labor-day weekend that saw dozens of shootings

I find it interesting that Mayor Bloomberg is more concerned that his subjects can acquire (often illegally) guns, knives, box cutters, cars, gasoline, matches, baseball bats, and gang paraphernalia than he is about the idea that his city has managed to create an entire generation of sociopaths who do not value human life.

He also asked the feds for help controlling the gun smuggling problem. Maybe that's not such a good idea...

Finally, I thought this sentence from the article was illuminating:

[Police] said they still are searching for 17-year-old Oneil DaSilva, of Mount Vernon, in connection with the shooting. His rap sheet includes nine arrests for attempted murder, third-degree assault and burglary.

So here you have one of the proto zombie bikers, a young man with multiple violent offenses who apparently fits Bloomberg's description as someone who has no respect for human life, who has been on the "catch and release" justice program.

The strictest gun control in the country isn't going to help stem violence if you've created a culture that revels in sociopathic bloodletting and then you slap violent offenders on the wrist time after time and allow them to roam the streets. Of course, it is easy to demonize the objects and hope that getting rid of the tools will get rid of the offenders too. It is much harder to confront the root causes, which probably involve a blighted urban landscape with failing schools, broken families, ineffective social organizations like churches, and generational involvement in drugs and gangs.

A Refresher for the Refresher

I'd like to redirect certain readers to our comment moderating policy.

As you can see, comments on older posts are moderated simply so that we can keep a hand on things.  Further, I will not be approving comments on posts made by Chris for several reasons.  Therefore, if you feel the need to comment on old posts, we'd appreciate it if you could exercise a bit of patience.  Chris is often travelling right now and very busy with work.  When I see comments come up for moderation I will let him know, but approval will not be instantaneous.  This is not because of dislike or disagreement with any comment, but simply due to scheduling.

Firesale

Newt Gingrich suggests selling part of Alaska to Brazil to pay off the national debt.

He was joking, but that wouldn't even make a dent in the debt, that's how much money we owe. I've made a bundle of dough in gold and silver over the last week or so, so I guess I'm not the only one thinking along those lines...

Raffles and Sidearms

There is a media-invented hullabaloo because the Pima County GOP is raffling off a Glock. Jered Laughner, a psycho with no coherent political philosophy who carried out an attack on a Dem politician who had been subject to media/verbal assaults from both the far left and the far right, also used a Glock sidearm. Ergo, the GOP must be supporting Evil Scary Lone Wolf Terrorism, because that's scary, even though the Glock being raffled is argueably less dangerous using the gun grabber's criteria (i.e., it isn't the same model and comes with a 12 round mag -- fewer rounds is less scary, right? Maybe you don't get credit unless you go below the magical number of 10 rounds though...).

Using that reasoning, I have to wonder why nobody has waved the flag about the Tucson/Pima County Sheriff's Department. They switched to Glock and carry Glock 17s in 9mm as their duty sidearm. If it is offensive for the GOP to raffle off a Glock, isn't it equally insulting/offensive/insensitive/supportive of terrorism for the Pima County PD to openly carry and use a higher capacity version of the exact same weapon, the one that Laughner used? Are we worried that the Glock 17s will start whispering an evil siren song of mass murder to the cops? Why is there not an NPR article about the Pima County PD's use of the Glock?

If we're not concerned about the Pima County LEOs using the glock, does it mean that the person carrying the weapon is the important thing, rather than the inanimate object itself? That would defeat the exercise in object fetishism though...

Cabbage Just Short of World Record

I'm missing the AK state fair and I'm not pleased about it.  Last year I was playing gigs and even got an honorable mention for my photo.  This year I'm stuck out of state.

The answer?  Relentless watching of all the news on the fair.  That's why I'm all over articles like this.

I have to say, I never knew we had "Cabbage Fairies."  Somehow I'm not surprised.

Revolution-Appropriate Attire

This kid should get some.