Michigan Considers Revising Outdated Handgun Laws

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Michigan is finally reviewing its old laws regarding the requirements of purchasing a handgun in the state. A House Judiciary Committee will review House Bill 5225 which will
revise permit-to-purchase and registration requirements. The NRA has been working to repeal these requirements since federal law already requires a criminal background check and has done so since 1998.

The NRA has teamed up with some state Representatives to change the language in the bill.  Some of the changes include:

  • If an applicant has more than one licence application, then that person will only have to complete a single basic pistol safety review questionnaire.
  • “The application is not required to be notarized and shall be processed free of charge.”
  • There are also provisions to make it easier to transfer ownership to an heir or “devisee.”

Read all the changes in language here. They’re all in bold.

These changes are only common sense. The legislation was introduced by Representative Paul Opsommer who says:

“Much of what we have in our gun law regarding the purchasing and registering of firearms, known as Public Act 372 of 1927, is still on the books for no other reason than that it is the way we have done things for decades upon decades. It is time to make this all less duplicative and bureaucratic for gun owners and also free up law enforcement time and resources so that they can focus on things that have real impact on public safety.”

Indeed.  Making it easier for law-abiding citizens to purchase handguns while giving law
enforcement back some precious time to fight crime—I’m all for it.

If you want to support this revised bill, contact info for the Michigan Judiciary Committee can be found here.

h/t NRA-ILA

Meredith Whitney About to Say I Told You So

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When Meredith Whitney predicted a muni bond meltdown people said it couldn’t happen even though many of our city and state governments are broke. When it didn’t happen in the time frame Whitney predicted people decided she was full of it. But she’s about to have the last laugh:

A “tidal wave” of defaults in the municipal bond market is still building and will eventually hit the United States, says Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney.

Many U.S. cities, towns and municipalities are insolvent but are treading along similar to how Greece did for years before officially defaulting.

In late 2010, Whitney told 60 Minutes that municipal defaults could run up into the hundreds of billions of dollars although that hasn’t happened. Maybe not officially, but insolvency is a deepening problem, and defaults are still on the way.

“You have Stockton (Calif.) that is on the brink of bankruptcy. You have five cities, including Detroit, which is on the brink of insolvency. It’s fascinating, because there’s been so much back-room political maneuvering to keep these cities from going bust,” Whitney tells CNBC, pointing out how California is trying to pass legislation to prevent municipalities from declaring bankruptcy.

“So there’s been every effort on the part of the states to prevent this tidal wave of defaults, which is going to happen sooner or later. It’s happening at an accelerating pace.”

Taxes are rising, social services are being cut and fiscal shortfalls will keep widening.

“They’re not called technical defaults. It took how long for Greece to become a technical default, so they’re insolvent, they’re not paying their bills,” says the founder of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group.

“You’re either willing to see it or you’ll shut your eyes, and if people want to tell me, ‘Oh, I was wrong,’ because this hasn’t played out, stay tuned.”

Get ready for America to look like a giant Detroit.

 

WW III Watch: Russian “Anti-Terror” Troops Land in Syria

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Not of course to be confused drunken barbarians Russia sent into Georgia a few years ago specifically to spread terror. These Russian troops are anti-terror specialists which is convenient since Assad is saying he’s fighting terrorists.

Which is of course true since the insurgency is a Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda supported government overthrow. But Syria is a Baathist (National Socialist) dictatorship so either way the victor will be an enemy of the West. We should be staying out of this one and building up our forces for the inevitable world war that will start once the MB announces the formation of a new caliphate, but we’re apparently pursuing a policy that would require sending 300,000 troops in. Smart power!

From The Blotter:

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was “a bomb” certain to have serious repercussions.

Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on the country’s uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.

Now the Russian Black Sea fleet’s Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency. The Russian news reports did not elaborate on the Russian troops’ mission in Syria or if they are expected to leave the port.

[…]

RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic language website. The Russian embassy to the U.S. and to the U.N. had no comment, saying they have “no particular information on” the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.

Moscow has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Assad regime, to which it sells billions of dollars of weapons. In return Russia has maintained a Navy base at Tartus, which gives it access to the Mediterranean.

Last week Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no plans to send troops to Syria.

[…]

Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov denied reports that Russian special forces were operating inside Syria. He did say, however, that there are Russian military and technical advisors in the country.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. government had not heard of the reports of Russian troops in Syria and declined to comment.

This is an escalation of the situation in the middle east. With Obama firmly in the corner of the Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda take over of the region it will be a matter of time before the “revolutionaries” ask America for support against the increasingly belligerent and imperialistic Russians. Then all hell will break loose.

Food Inflation Update

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I was at Costco a couple of days ago and the price of honey stopped me dead in my tracks. I’ve been buying 5lb containers of clover honey there for a few years and since me and the Mrs. use it in our tea and I sometimes cook with it we do go through a container faster than you would think. So I always pick up one at Costco for the larder so we have a few on hand. About a year or so ago I was paying around $8.99 for one. The it went to about $10 bucks a piece.

This week it was $11.45.

I must have had some trouble keeping my dismay to myself because my reaction started a conversation with a nice gentleman who informed me that his popcorn had similarly spiked. We chatted briefly and conversation quickly turned to the dreaded “h” word – hyperinflation.  We had a nice conversation and my wife and I were heartened to meet people who understood the disaster we are heading into as a country.

Massive Fed printing leading to dollar devaluation, attacks on farming limiting food supply, increased global demand, peak oil – there’s a lot of blame to go around and this inflation we’re seeing s the product of a perfect storm that is sweeping across not only America but the entire industrialized world. The politics of whom to blame might be interesting but the reality of the situation is that we need to learn to live in a world where we will have access to less and less.

My wife and I went to a local diner yesterday and noticed that both the meals we go, while delicious, were smaller and skimped a bit on the meat. I no longer buy meat at my local grocery because it’s too expensive – I buy from Costco or Aldi.Gone are my veal chop dinners as I begin eating more ground pork and turkey which is always cheap.

Onions, peppers and potatoes have become staples of my diet and right now I’m starting a bunch of pepper plants so I don’t have to buy them. They too are too expensive.

On my site Hunter-Trader-Trapper I’ll be adding a frugal living category where I’ll be sharing with readers my tips on how to save money on food in these tough times without going hungry. I’m also looking for articles if anyone would like to submit.

But the warnings are there. We are heading off a cliff and there is nothing politicians or parties can do to stop this. It’s time for you to prepare for what is coming which is a long period of prices raising so much that only the very rich will remain unscathed. The days of dollar dominance are over and everyone know it. I just read a Daily Caller article dealing with drug dealers accepting bottles of Tide laundry detergent as payment rather than money. Think about that for a second.

Dealers are now bartering for drugs because they know Tide is now as valuable or more valuable than money. They are selling the Tide on the black market for half price as the prices in stores become too much for the inner city poor.

We’re partisans here at Red Alerts but right now it’s time to put away the partisanship and think about how you will feed yourself and your families. These warnings have been made for years but it still is not too late to put some food away and think about what to do when the bread is $15 a loaf.