The Reload has an article on the newest gun control bill introduced in Congress. Okay, it’s poorly written and would ban just about every gun sold right now, but it’s an interesting change of tactics by our opponents.
A bunch of federal offices sit empty while the taxpayers are still paying for them. One of the dirty little secrets is that no one wants to give up their little space empire – even if they’re not using it and others are paying through the nose other space. I would be all in favor of some kind of BRAC-type examination of all federal buildings/leases/land to see what could be sold off or condensed.
Here’s a think-piece on allowing in Gaza refugees. My sympathies lie with allowing refugees in. However, considering the current state of the immigration issue, I can’t see how they wouldn’t be turned into playthings of the demagogue politicians.
From GroundNews, Orlando buys the Pulse site to build a memorial. I understand the need for a memorial. I just have a feeling that it will be used to push the narrative that the asshole was targeting gays instead of just wanting to kill people.
I have a couple of articles on the administration’s executive orders on AI. One from Wired and one from aisnakeoil. Considering the stance of the administration, I can hear the words “regulatory capture” just behind their talking points.
An interesting piece on how Congress has not learned the lessons of high interest rates. They also haven’t learned that pumping money into an economy causes inflation, so why should anyone be surprised?
A new threat to LLM’s from an old technique – prompt injections. As these LLM’s become more prevalent, we’re going to find all sorts of unexpected benefits and threats.
Via Erin Palette, comes this blog post about why Jews may be looking at others with some suspicion. I’ll admit, it hit me wrong. I dislike the whole “I can only trust people in my identity group” attitude. I understand how it arises, and that we’ll see more of this as America transitions to a low-trust society. I will still extend my hand – if you feel threatened and want to learn the basics of gun handling feel free to contact me.
If I’d known Smith and Wesson was going to come out with this PCC, I might have not purchased my FSC. I prefer the “AR” rifle configuration over the FSC’s more “Uzi”-style configuration.
Steyr announced a new version of their Scout rifle. The original Scout debuted right when I was getting into guns, and it’s always had a place in my heart. Something about that integrated bipod and the mag holder in the butt. The new one looks like a worthy successor.
Time for light items.
Disney is developing a live-action version of Gargoyles. Well, that could be either very good or very bad. I should really introduce The Wife to the series.
And because I’ve had this song pinging around my head for some indiscernible reason.:
Second, an article on how most women still take their husband’s last name after marriage. However, there’s an uptick of younger women keeping their maiden name. The Wife and I had the discussion if she wanted to take my last name when we got married. She’d built a strong work reputation on her maiden name, and there were some downsides of the change. Still, like most of the women in the study, she chose to take my last name.
And Beretta’s got a new AR-pattern rifle. I kinda like their ARX-160, but it was never in the running for my home defense carbine. Beretta can be kinda weird sometimes.
The Hill has a “Republicans pounce” article on DOE proposing new efficiency rules for ceiling fans. Do you want Florida to secede? Make it harder for us to get/afford ceiling fans. Because that’s how you get Florida to secede.
Due to drama in the Ward household, I haven’t posted Monday links for a couple of weeks. So, this is mostly tab-clearing out some articles.
Let’s start with the normal Reason links.
Police keep harassing the wrong David Sosa. He sued and was joined by eleven other David Sosas. This falls into the police need to have more attention to detail and not just take the easy road. Particularly when it comes to detaining the wrong people.
Tennessee student makes Instagram posts poking fun at the principal and gets suspended. The student sues.
The NY Times’ Wirecutter section has an article on what you need for birding. I only add it to the links because the author neglected any dog treats. Which based on his history and his infamous viral moment, you’d think he would include.
I’ve been thinking recently on the concept of a carbon tax. I like the general idea of levying a tax for higher carbon production – particularly if it’s somewhat like a Carbon-Added Tax. It’s way to charge for an externality as well as fuel innovation by leveraging the market through customers wanting to pay lower prices.
The problem is what to do with those funds. There’s always some discussion that those funds would be used to help poorer nations mitigate the damage from climate change – floods, crop losses, migration to cities.
Except, I don’t trust the governments of the world with such a scheme. It would be too easy to divert those funds to pet projects and friends. I also don’t trust governments to properly levy how much tax should be paid. Finally, no government is going to let go of a revenue stream – regardless of how carbon-efficient technology becomes.
There’s part of me that thinks a large NGO could manage the carbon tax funds. Something like the IMF or WTO. Yet, I don’t trust their incentives any more than the government.