My name is David Robins: Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner, libertarian (voluntaryist), and student.

This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site.

Economic socialism package

1. The government doesn't create money, it takes it from the citizens at the point of a gun.
2. Therefore, the stimulus money must come from taxes (or borrowed money, which will eventually require taxes for interest and repayment).
3. There is a pool of tax money that will used to make the stimulus payments (to make things easy, let's say x people are getting payments of $600, so 600x).
4. The stimulus payment is some part y of all taxes collected t: yt = 600x.
5. The actual gain from the stimulus payment is therefore 600 - yt. There will be net losers and net gainers; people only get the full amount if they pay no taxes, and people over certain ceilings ($75k, or $150k if married filing jointly) get nothing, even though they contribute.
6. This is income redistribution, which is socialist (I'll still take my money, but I think we'd all be better off if nothing had been done; there's also the administrative overhead to consider).

From: GD
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 11:43
To: ...; Conservatives and Libertarians at MS
Subject: "We're only going back there to visit, right?"

My wife just did our taxes last night. We're getting back a few bucks (missed our goal of having a zero return—I don't like freely loaning the gov't my money). She ran the numbers as if we were living in the Great White North. We would owe a lot of money in taxes. We'd have to sell the house, the cars, at least one of the kids....

Last year I gave my son the classic object lesson in budget and taxation, combined with one reason we moved to America. I gave him $10 in quarters and then started taking off taxes, levies, fees, mortgage payments, utility payments, etc. He was not pleased. Then I gave him a tax refund.

"Dad, why didn't you just let me keep that money in the first place?"

Then I repeated the process using Canadian tax rates. He was really not a happy camper when it was all gone. I had to explain to him that we could not afford to live in the Vancouver area like we used to and have a house, cars, each kid with their own room, private school, karate etc. I told him that was the most basic reason we left Qanuckia.

"Dad, we're only going back there to visit, right?"

God Bless America

What if: suffrage just for landowners

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

They published my letter

Books finished: Atlas Shrugged.

Louis Voyer stops by very briefly

Louis Voyer

President Calderón, you are insulting the American people when you tell us that fifteen to twenty million illegal aliens in our country bring only benefits and no costs. I challenge you to give one concrete example of how the enforcement of our existing immigration laws violates anyone’s human rights. The people of Oklahoma are not anti-Mexican for passing laws to require verification of employment eligibility. The people of Indiana are not anti-immigrant for passing laws to require photo identification for voting. The people of California are not anti-Mexican for denying driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. The people of Arizona are not anti-immigrant for passing laws that deny welfare benefits to people who are in that state unlawfully.

DVDs finished: 300.

Are You a Democrat, Republican, or a Southerner?

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children.
Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife and charges at you.
You are carrying a Glock .40 pistol and you are an expert shot.
You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?

Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!

Does the man look poor? Or oppressed?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think?
What about the kids?
What does the law say about this situation?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway? And, what kind of message does this send to society and my children?
Does he definitely want to kill me or would he just be content to wound me?
Should I call 911?
Why is this street so deserted?
We need to raise taxes, have a paint and weed day and make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.

BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click, click, click, click.
(Sounds of reloading.) BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click.

Daughter: Nice grouping Daddy! Were those the Winchester Silver Tips or Hollow Points?
Son: Can I shoot the next one?
Wife: You ain't takin' that to the Taxidermist!

Gun cleaning: a use for the River Current

DVDs finished: Perfect Stranger, Underworld, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 7, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Letters to the editor

I was upset by your interview with Congressman Thompson (D-MS). Perhaps he and his committee allotted $3Bn to secure the border, some to hire more border agents, but what good does that do when those agents go to jail for defending that border (Ramos/Compean)? I am tired of all the problems caused by illegal immigrants. We need to build the border fence now so that Americans are safe and the needless deaths and other crimes stop.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay… If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

... On the facing page [of the March 31 copy of the Weekly] is an article about Larry Phillips, King County Councilman (D), wanting to have the public pay for county campaign finances. Do you realize who the "public" is? It's you! King County has only the money generated by the taxes you pay and they collect (at the point of a gun).
    Then two pages later is an advertisement by the City of Woodinville. It states it's offering free tree chipping services. That's a lie. Someone is paying for this, and if you look further the event is paid for by grants from Washington state and King County. Where does the state and county get grant money? From you, the taxpayer, and from the one time homeowner in Duvall who is now homeless [more about that later]. On top of this we homeowners with wood debris and tree branches could be done disposing of our own branches in one day if we were allowed, by the Democrats, their bureaucrats and special interest groups, to burn. If we were allowed to burn, it wouldn't cost you any tax dollars!
    Please, people, get a grip, who and what you vote for affects all aspects of your day to day life!" —Kathy & Dennis Peterson, Woodnville

I agree with the Petersons' letter of April 14 that, where the government is concerned, there is no such thing a "free": it's paid for by we the taxpayers, under threat of violence.
    However, I take issue with the implication that it is the city or county's responsibility to absolve this woman of her taxes because she couldn't pay them: it is not, regardless of how long she lived there, just as I have no right to demand that the taxpayers give me money to pay my bills.
    I am sympathetic if the inference was rather that the woman would have been able to pay if taxes were lower. Far too often politicians and voters argue over how tax money should be spent, rather than first considering if tax money should be spent. It should be the first duty of any one that has spending authority over my money to consider how to return that money, and with it the power and freedom to choose for ourselves, to the taxpayer, and, to paraphase de Saint-Exupéry, what can be removed, rather than what can be added, to the tax burden of the American citizen.

DVDs finished: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

A LINQ to the future

    // attributes copy their parents' workflow bugs (for filtering)
    bgw.ReportProgress(0, "Assuming parent element workflow for attributes...");
    var qAttrDev = from dev in m_pldev
        join attr in m_ecmadc.Attributes on dev.docID equals attr.docIDattribute
        where (DEVT)dev.type == DEVT.Attr && m_mpWkf.ContainsKey(attr.docID.ToString())
        select new { docID = dev.docID.ToString(), docIDparent = attr.docID.ToString() };
    foreach (var monkey in qAttrDev)
        m_mpWkf.AutoVivify(monkey.docID).AddRange(m_mpWkf[monkey.docIDparent]);

    public static class Extensions
    {
        public static U AutoVivify<T, U>(this Dictionary<T, U> mptu, T t)
        {
            if (!mptu.ContainsKey(t))
                mptu.Add(t, (U)typeof(U).GetConstructor(new Type[0]).Invoke(null));
            return mptu[t];
        }
    }

smb_proc_readX_data: offset is larger than SMB_READX_MAX_PAD or negative!
smb_proc_readX_data: -59 > 64 || -59 < 0
smb_add_request: request [ffff8100092d3e00, mid=1208] timed out!

DVDs finished: Star Wars Trilogy, The Riddick Trilogy, Æon Flux.

Stuff happens, it's not that interesting

DVDs finished: Live Free or Die Hard, Blade: Trinity, The Matrix Revolutions, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series, Kiss the Girls, Dirty Harry, John Travolta Triple Feature.

The fascists next door

• 9th, 1 minute down (0.07%)
• 10th, 119 minutes down (8.26%)
• 11th (today, until ~2000), 185 minutes down (12.85%).

• Any handgun is a restricted weapon (the only "unrestricted" (that doesn't mean what you think it means) firearms are some shotguns and rifles)!
• All firearms must be unloaded during transport (concealed carry? What's that?) or storage; non-restricted firearms must be locked in the trunk, restricted firearms must also be rendered unable to be fired with a secure locking device and locked in a heavy-duty opaque container
• Want to transport a handgun? That requires a form which takes about two weeks to get. Don’t even think about trying to get permission to carry.

  This particular license is almost impossible to get. It's issued to armored car personnel and occasionally to trappers and other workers in the bush. Authorizations to Carry are unique is that there is no appeal from a refusal of an application for an ATC; "no" means no.

• So, what can you get? The Possession and Acquisition License (PAL), $60 ($80 "restricted"), renewable every five years, and here are the hoops you need to jump through to get it:
  
  
  1. a passport-sized photograph, certified to be of you by some other person
  2. signed permission of your current "domestic partner" and all previous domestic partners within the past three years (The US just requires that you not have felony or domestic violence convictions, whereas in Canada you can be blocked by the whim of an irrational ex)
  3. signed permission from two other individuals who are not family members (is this a joke? "Please, Joe, can you sign this so I can get a gun?")
  4. you must pass the Canadian (Restricted) Firearms Safety Course (you need the Restricted course as well only if you want to be able to possess something more dangerous than a rubber band); each is 12 hour class and an examination, or you can skip the class and "challenge the examination" directly
  5. said course also has a practical part, which includes the operation of various actions, gun safety (to the point of using a cleaning rod to check that the bore is unobstructed)
  6. you need to tell them what firearms you intend to possess (while you're in the zone, tell yourself the upcoming winning lottery numbers)
  7. you'll need to get your local police to do a background check on your and send it to the Canadian authorities
  8. register each firearm you intend to bring into Canada: $18 is the most recent fee I can find, but it may have gone up since then

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