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Mar. 20MORGANTOWN The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill Friday morning aimed at protecting the state from federal gun control overreach, but law enforcement expressed worries that the bill could hamper task force efforts to fight crime.

HB 2694 is called the Second Amendment Preservation Act. It says no state agency, political subdivision or an employee of either of those acting in an official capacity may "knowingly and willingly participate in any way in the enforcement of any federal act, law, order, rule, or regulation regarding a firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition if the act, law, order, rule, or regulation does not exist under the laws of this state."

It also bars use of public funds for the purposes mentioned.

A committee substitute removed criminal penalties described in the introduced version and included exceptions for multi-agency task force investigations of drug crimes and for violations of federal law detected during unrelated law enforcement activity.

The bill requires the attorney general to publish model policies for guidance.

Delegates peppered committee counsel with various hypothetical "what if " questions. They learned that if the FBI arrested someone participating in a US Capitol insurrection who carried a gun, the bill could prohibit the suspect from being housed in a state jail. It could also limit cooperation in extradition cases where the suspect flees to West Virginia.

Problems begin to arise, they learned, because state firearms laws do not mirror in every respect federal laws and most firearms cases in West Virginia involve federal law.

Adam Crawford, a Kanawha County deputy and detective, spoke for the Fraternal Order of Police about their issues, "We understand the concerns and fears of potential federal overreach, " he said. The problem is that federal firearms law are often used to put criminals away. There's frequent "bleedover " between drugs, guns, money and violent crimes, he said.

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"It's hard to limit and restrict how police work functions, " he said. The bill might let violent criminals walk because police can't assist in federal firearms violations.

"It's just unclear to us why this is getting mixed in. With all these other issues we have, " he said.

Many federal crimes carry stiffer penalties that state crimes, Crawford said, and task forces will often use them to put the criminals away longer.

West Virginia police, he said, often make use of the National Integrated Ballistics Network to investigate local shootings where there are difficulties, such as lack of witness cooperation, and submit information to NIBN and find that the gun was used in a different shooting. The bill could hamper such use of federal databases. "The biggest fear I have is it's going to cease a lot of the cooperation we have."

Pressed by bill supporters about whether the added exception offered reassurance on his concerns, Crawford said his questions remain.

Crawford's doubt weren't sufficient to sway the supporters and the bill passed in a voice vote. It heads to the House floor.

Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard @dominionpost.com

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House Judiciary OKs 2nd Amendment bill; law enforcement worries it may hamper cooperation with feds - Yahoo News

Individualism. Libertarians see the individual as the basic unit of social analysis. Only individuals make choices and are responsible for their actions. Libertarian thought emphasizes the dignity of each individual, which entails both rights and responsibility. The progressive extension of dignity to more people to women, to people of different religions and different races is one of the great libertarian triumphs of the Western world.

Individual Rights. Because individuals are moral agents, they have aright to be secure in their life, liberty, and property. These rights are not granted by government or by society; they are inherent in the nature of human beings. It is intuitively right that individuals enjoy the security of such rights; the burden of explanation should lie with those who would take rights away.

Spontaneous Order. Agreat degree of order in society is necessary for individuals to survive and flourish. Its easy to assume that order must be imposed by acentral authority, the way we impose order on astamp collection or afootball team. The great insight of libertarian social analysis is that order in society arises spontaneously, out of the actions of thousands or millions of individuals who coordinate their actions with those of others in order to achieve their purposes. Over human history, we have gradually opted for more freedom and yet managed to develop acomplex society with intricate organization. The most important institutions in human society language, law, money, and markets all developed spontaneously, without central direction. Civil society the complex network of associations and connections among people is another example of spontaneous order; the associations within civil society are formed for apurpose, but civil society itself is not an organization and does not have apurpose of its own.

The Rule of Law. Libertarianism is not libertinism or hedonism. It is not aclaim that people can do anything they want to, and nobody else can say anything. Rather, libertarianism proposes asociety of liberty under law, in which individuals are free to pursue their own lives so long as they respect the equal rights of others. The rule of law means that individuals are governed by generally applicable and spontaneously developed legal rules, not by arbitrary commands; and that those rules should protect the freedom of individuals to pursue happiness in their own ways, not aim at any particular result or outcome.

Limited Government. To protect rights, individuals form governments. But government is adangerous institution. Libertarians have agreat antipathy to concentrated power, for as Lord Acton said, Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thus they want to divide and limit power, and that means especially to limit government, generally through awritten constitution enumerating and limiting the powers that the people delegate to government. Limited government is the basic political implication of libertarianism, and libertarians point to the historical fact that it was the dispersion of power in Europe more than other parts of the world that led to individual liberty and sustained economic growth.

Free Markets. To survive and to flourish, individuals need to engage in economic activity. The right to property entails the right to exchange property by mutual agreement. Free markets are the economic system of free individuals, and they are necessary to create wealth. Libertarians believe that people will be both freer and more prosperous if government intervention in peoples economic choices is minimized.

The Virtue of Production. Much of the impetus for libertarianism in the seventeenth century was areaction against monarchs and aristocrats who lived off the productive labor of other people. Libertarians defended the right of people to keep the fruits of their labor. This effort developed into arespect for the dignity of work and production and especially for the growing middle class, who were looked down upon by aristocrats. Libertarians developed apreMarxist class analysis that divided society into two basic classes: those who produced wealth and those who took it by force from others. Thomas Paine, for instance, wrote, There are two distinct classes of men in the nation, those who pay taxes, and those who receive and live upon the taxes. Similarly, Jefferson wrote in 1824, We have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Modern libertarians defend the right of productive people to keep what they earn, against anew class of politicians and bureaucrats who would seize their earnings to transfer them to political clients and cronies.

Natural Harmony of Interests. Libertarians believe that there is anatural harmony of interests among peaceful, productive people in ajust society. One persons individual plans which may involve getting ajob, starting abusiness, buying ahouse, and so on may conflict with the plans of others, so the market makes many of us change our plans. But we all prosper from the operation of the free market, and there are no necessary conflicts between farmers and merchants, manufacturers and importers. Only when government begins to hand out rewards on the basis of political pressure do we find ourselves involved in group conflict, pushed to organize and contend with other groups for apiece of political power.

Peace. Libertarians have always battled the ageold scourge of war. They understood that war brought death and destruction on agrand scale, disrupted family and economic life, and put more power in the hands of the ruling class which might explain why the rulers did not always share the popular sentiment for peace. Free men and women, of course, have often had to defend their own societies against foreign threats; but throughout history, war has usually been the common enemy of peaceful, productive people on all sides of the conflict.

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Key Concepts of Libertarianism | Cato Institute

By David K. Johnson, Ph.D., Kings CollegeQuantum mechanics has taught us that determinism is false. On the quantum level, individual events happen randomly and without a cause all the time. (Image: MoVille/Shutterstock)A Deterministic Universe

Neo, the main character of The Matrix franchise, is informed by the Oracle that to fulfill the prophecies he must go to the computer mainframe called the Source. To do that, he has to find the Key Maker who has been abducted by an ancient program called the Merovingian.

When Neo, Morpheus and Trinity find Merovingian in a restaurant, he tells them that choice is an illusion. What he is referring to is the idea of determinism, which argues everything in the universe is predetermined and free will is just an illusion. The Merovingian believes we are living in a deterministic universe.

Many philosophers have tried to refute the idea of determinism, but thats a daunting task. Those who endorse the libertarian notion of free will are usually called agent causation theorists. They think that in order for an action to be free, the causal explanation for why that action occurred must end, ultimately, in the agentthe personwho performed that action. Agents are the ultimate cause of free actions; thats why there are alternate possibilities.

But if determinism is true, not only are there no alternate possibilities, but agents are not the ultimate cause of their actions. The causal explanation of peoples action traces back all the way to the motion of atoms at the beginning of the universe.

This is a transcript from the video series Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

Technically speaking, the Merovingian is wrong. The universe is not a deterministic system. Quantum mechanics has taught us that determinism is false. On the quantum level, individual events happen randomly and without a cause all the time. And to be clear, its not merely that we have so far been unable to predict such events or find their cause. We have actually proved, experimentally, that they have no cause.

Unfortunately, the randomness of quantum events cannot rescue human free will. For one, as philosopher Peter van Inwagen points out, indeterminism is just as incompatible with free will as determinism.

Learn more about the philosophical conundrum of free will and determinism.

Even if our decisions are the consequence of random quantum events in our brain, then we still arent free because we arent the cause of those events. We cant be. Nothing is the cause of those events. Indeed, their randomness entails that they are not caused.

Secondly, determinism is still true in a different way. Quantum randomness, which occurs on the micro-level, is essentially averaged out on the macro-level of larger objects. For example, the decay of individual radioactive atoms is random, but if you have a collection of them, you can deterministically predict when half of them will decay.

The statistical notion of adequate determinism can be used to predict the behavior of larger physical systems despite quantum behavior inside them. Since the brain is such a system, even though it may be impossible to predict specific quantum events within it, the outcome of the brains activity is likely deterministic. We may even one day have laws that enable us to predict its behavior.

All of this clearly makes it difficult to defend the notion that humans are free in the libertarian sense. Consequently, some philosophers have suggested an alternate theory of what it means to be free, known as compatibilism.

As the name suggests, these philosophers believe that free will and determinism are compatible. This idea dates all the way back to Aristotle and is defended by modern-day philosophers like John Martin Fischer.

Learn more about Aristotle and the Socratic legacy.

The essence of the suggestion is that an agent freely performs an action as long as that action flows or follows from some part of the agent. To modify Fischers argument, which was originally about moral responsibility, we might say that an agents action is free as long as it is the result of a conscious rational deliberative process.

If the agent thinks about what to do, and then the outcome of that process causes the agents action, then the agent has acted freely. The problem with this understanding of free will is that it doesnt align with our intuitions about what free will is.

According to the theory, as long as you are acting in accordance with the consequence of your rational deliberation, then you are acting freelyeven if outside forces are what ultimately caused that rational deliberation to occur as it did.

Philosophers who endorse the libertarian notion of free will are usually called agent causation theorists. According to this theory, for an action to be free, the causal explanation for why that action occurred must end, ultimately, in the agentthe personwho performed that action. Agents are the ultimate cause of free actions; thats why there are alternate possibilities.

On the quantum level, individual events happen randomly and without a cause, all the time. But the randomness of quantum events cannot rescue human free will. Indeterminism is just as incompatible with free will as determinism is. Even if our decisions are the result of random quantum events in our brain, we still arent free because we arent the cause of those events.

Compatibilism suggests that free will and determinism are compatible. The essence of the suggestion is that an agent freely performs an action as long as that action flows or follows from some part of the agent.

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'The Matrix' Universe and the Fight to Reclaim Free Will - The Great Courses Daily News

The March 20 election is here.

Baton Rouge area residents will head to the polls to vote on a number of local elections and a pair of special elections for seats in the U.S. House.

Polling places will be open from 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Anyone who is in line at 6 p.m. will be allowed to vote.

Voters are asked to bring an ID with them to vote. Voters without an ID will be allowed to vote after filling out an affidavit.

Voters are assigned to a specific voting precinct. You can look up your location at the Secretary of State's website byclicking here.

Once you enter your information, click 'My Election Day Voting Location.'

Visit geauxvote.com for more information on candidates.

Party abbreviations: D-Democrat, R-Republican, I-Independent; L-Libertarian; NP-No Party.

(Portions of Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, St. James and West Baton Rouge parishes, plus the New Orleans area)

Chelsea Ardoin, R

Belden Noonie Man Batiste, I

Claston Bernard, R

Troy A. Carter, D

Karen Carter Peterson, D

Gary Chambers Jr., D

Harold John, D

J. Christopher Johnson, D

Brandon Jolicoeur, NP

Lloyd M. Kelly, D

Greg Lirette, R

Mindy McConnell, Libertarian

Desiree Ontiveros, D

Jenette M. Porter, D

Sheldon C. Vincent Sr., R

(Portions of East Feliciana, St. Helena, Tangipahoa and West Feliciana parishes, plus northeastern Louisiana)

Sandra Candy Christophe, D

Chad Conerly, R

Jim Davis, NP

Allen Guillory, R

Robert Lansden, R

Julia Letlow, R

Jaycee Magnuson, R

Horace Melton III, R

M.V. Vinny Mendoza, I

Richard H. Pannell, R

Sancha Smith, R

Errol Victor Sr., R

(5 to be elected)

Randy Anny, D

Wanda LeBlanc Bourgeois, R

Chad Domingue, R

Darnell Gilbert Sr., D

Duane Humphrey, D

Patti Melancon Poche, D

Tim Lazaroe, R

Wayne Messina, R

(5 to be elected)

Tracy Bryson, R

James Jimmy Fabre, NP

Gregory Hill, NP

Roy Miller, R

Ronald Marty Starkey, R

Hunter Stoetzner, R

(2 to be elected)

Elda Hootie Carter, NP

Kolby Frederick, R

Carlton Haycook, R

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What's on the March 20 ballot? Baton Rouge residents will vote on these congressional, local races - The Advocate

"Real Time" host Bill Maher went on a tirade against the growing "tsunami" of cancel culture.

"I swear to God, I don't want to talk about cancel culture and this nonsense every week, but I just thinkpeople understand how this is a tsunami and how fast the goalposts change almost on a weekly basis," Maher began the discussion on Friday night.

"Literally, on the top of my head ...I wrote down three things that I could think of -- not just what you do now... it's anything you've ever done... Not justwhat you say, it's now what you listen to, they can catch you for that. What you order, who you say you like, anythingsort of association, if you retweet something."

The subject later turned to the ousting of Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond, who was forced to resign even before she started the job after the magazine's staff expressed outrage over allegedly racist and homophobic tweets she made a decade ago when she was a 17-year-old high schooler.

McCammond had previously apologized for the posts.

TEEN VOGUE EDITOR BECOMES LATEST CANCEL CULTURE VICTIM AFTER STAFFERS' REVOLT OVER DECADE-OLD TWEETS

"Can I just say something? People talk s--- in private! We can't legislate that away!" Maher exclaimed. "For f--- sake, can we have a little common sense? People talk s--- about each other in private."

"Can I just say something? People talk s--- in private! We can't legislate that away!"

One of Maher's guests, former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., blamed Teen Vogue for not backing McCammond and urged Corporate America to "not buy into this stuff."

"You're right," Maher agreed. "Somebody hasto have some b---s!"

Alexi McCammond left Teen Vogue after staffers complained about posts from her teenage years. (Getty Images)

Heitkamp slammed Republicans attempting to appropriate cancel culture and pointed to their "War on Christmas" mantra that gets pushed every holiday season.

"Yeah, they're snowflakes, too," Maher responded. "But they don't control the media the way these brats do. That's the problem. I don't think that it was Republicans who got Alexi [fired]."

"I don't think that it was Republicans who got Alexi [fired]."

The HBO star then compared the current state of cancel culture to the "Blacklist" era of the 1950s how the simple act of "informing on you" could get someone banned.

"People go to parties now and they don't want to talk. They're like, 'Can I talk? I don't know your girlfriend. She might be woke.'Really. I'm not making this up," Maher said. "This informant thing, it's not just what you do, it's what you don't report. That's another way the goalpost moved."

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Maher then pointed to the canceling of Mumford &Sons banjo playerWinston Marshall, who issued an apology and announced he was "stepping away" from the band after he praised journalist Andy Ngo's book "Unmasked," which exposes the dangers ofAntifa. Maher called his apology "so Soviet."

"'Over the past few days, I have come to better understand the pain I caused by the book I endorsed.' What? Did you hit someone over the head with it?" Maher quipped. "'I have offended not onlya lot of peopleI don't know but also thoseclosest to me, including my bandmates.' What a bunch of p---ies they must be. 'And for that, I am truly sorry.' It's so Stalinesque. You know what, how about, 'I can read what I want! I'm a musician!'"

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Maher blasts cancel culture over Teen Vogue editor's ousting: Woke 'brats' control the media now - Fox News