We all do!
Posted on 08/26/2011 10:07:48 AM PDT by Nachum
The real endangered species?
I’ve seen a lot of enviro-nitwittery over the years, but this takes the cake.
US Fish and Wildlife officials have raided the famous Gibson Guitars. And the instrument-maker isn’t alone. Antique piano dealers are also in the crosshairs. Why? Because rare, beautiful instruments made of ecologically incorrect materials must be sacrificed at the green altar. Talk about hitting a sour note.
Eric Felten at the WSJ reports:
Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson’s chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company’s manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. “The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier,” he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.
It isn’t the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian’s ES-150. In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name “United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms.”
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
The list, ping
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Sick bastards.
Obviously, the fed Eco-Nazis have run out of stuff to do. It’s time to fire all of their asses! America is broke. We don’t have money to waste on this kind of garbage anymore.
I swear I feel like I’m living in some sort of parallel universe.
More likely this is a Jesse Jackson-style shakedown in disguise because Gibson either isn't unionized or doesn't hire enough of Holder's people to please Der Furher.
This administration is doing everything it can to destroy the American economy and American jobs. Just another day at the office for those fools . . . .
Anyone still want to argue we cannot balance the budget on spending cuts alone?
There was an article about this in the WSJ today. It’s not only Gibson, and not only guitars. Some poor guy was threatened with years in jail for exporting an instrument that had ivory. His crime was that he had actually checked with Customs first, and this put him on a watch list; even though he had certificates that the instrument was old enough to have been before the ban, they didn’t consider this sufficient. He actually had to plead guilty and pay a $17,000 fine in order to avoid jail.
This is killing the importing and exporting of instruments, to say nothing of building them. It’s the US government eco-terrorists at work.
Really ! Federal busybodies taking down more businesses just because they have nothing better to do. I bet Gibson didn’t pay his shakedown fee to those favored by the current regime !
I am thinking of starting a composite file “EPA Gone Wild” with Obama/EPA articles tracking the administration. Should be a large file.
:)
Ping.
Time for every department in this stinking morass of a federal government to be impeached and thrown out of office.
Speaking of wood, I hope those nouveau Nazis are buried in cardboard boxes, because even #2 yellow pine caskets would be too good for them. Can we revolt now?
Gibson makes beautiful guitars, musicians make beautiful music with them, and we all benefit. Uncle Barry’s regime makes nothing useful and no one benefits.
If Gibson were to eventually respond to an out of control Gov’t by moving all corporate and manufacturing operations overseas, Mr. Soetero would be the first in line to fail to understand why.
We all do!
Sounds like another industry the feds are trying to drive offshore...
The Lacey Act of 1900
Lacey Act vs. Declaration Requirement
•
The Declaration Requirement is only a small part of the entire Lacey Act
•
Even if a shipment is exempt from the Declaration Requirement –the Lacey Act is still in force
•
Example: Bagpipes with wooden pipes
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HTS Section 92059020 –no declaration required
–
The Lacey Act itself still applies to the wooden pipes
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If the pipes were made from illegally harvested treesthen the bagpipe shipment is in violation of the Lacey Act
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/lacey_act/downloads/LaceyActPrimer.pdf
Next they will come for our bagpipes!
Note to Feds: You, Bastards! I’ll give you my guitar when you take it from my cold dead hands!
It’s gonna take Tea power to do it. For the sake of Gibson Guitars everywhere, we have to win big in 2012. I own a ‘78 Gibson Les Paul custom BTW. It’s one of those rare American things that doesn’t ever become worth less than you paid for it (unless you break it).
This is just the Fed’s version of the mafia protection racket.
“Yous mights want to consider a campaign contribution, strictly voluntary mind you, ‘cause you never knows what could happen to your bidness. The Fish and Wildlife might pay yous a little visit.”
It is an issue that can be used to hammer youth cullture with next year.
don’t forget the Amish milkmen.
It’ll be a huge file. The other unnerving thing is that most people are totally unaware of what’s going on.
I don’t know how many voting guitarists there are in the USA, probably millions.
Big O might have scewed his own pooch (apologies to Bo).
I never owned a Gibson although I would have like to have had one. Always played Fenders to get that “Waylon Jennings” sound. I knew a guy in the Army whose father gave him a Les Paul. This was back in the mid 70s and the guitar was already old at that time. The guy had it thrown in the back seat of his car. He didn’t even have a case for it. Needless to say, it was getting beat up pretty bad. I could have strangled him. He wouldn’t sell it to me because it “used to belong” to his dad.
Yep! I own a Gibson Custom Shop Historic 1958 Les Paul reissue. Some day it will be my son's.
I had a ‘73 Les Paul Deluxe and a ‘78 Les Paul Standard, back when you could get them used for $500. That’s what I paid for my ‘06 Epiphone Les Paul Custom Vintage now.
I wonder if any values will spike like what happened to Colt Series 70 pistols and Python Revolvers?
Yeah, I'd include massive tax cuts as well.
I hope you’re happy those mother-of-pearl frets cost an abalone its life somewhere! /green
...Been pissed off at the SchutzStaffel on lots of things but, as a musician, guitar and piano, this rrrrreally pisses me off!!!
I own a martin D-18 made in 1948. I bet I would be charged with something in a minute if ‘they’ knew I had it.
Was Gibson on a list of Republican donors?
Feds going after luthiers. McCartney and Jackson’s “Ebony and Ivory” come to mind.
Yes, that's true. They can lock down anything they want.
I was going to blame this on Bush but...
He vetoed the Farm Bill that this expansion was attached to. Twice! (Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.)
Bush's veto was overridden by congress.
Yep. Guitar players can truly blame the democrats for this mess.
I have, among many others, a ‘57 San Marino Blue Strat. No worries with that one. Maple neck, and whatever they were using for the bodies back then. But my ‘63 Sho Bud Fingertip has Rosewood aprons and necks.
Nice. I was looking for a strat when I bought my tele but I liked it so much when I played it I couldn’t resist. So now I’m torn on my next guitar purchase between a strat with a floyd rose tremolo or a Jackson Randy Rhoads model with floyd rose. I think I’ll have them both eventually.
Mine’s a ‘76 Les Paul Standard bought new.
I think I’ll be playing it exclusively this weekend.
That article is in the WSJonline Opinion sction:
Seems some are also stripping the ivory and ebony keys out of their concert pianos and harpsichords because of this misguided nazi enforcment.
I've got a Mexican-made 50s Classic series. Really a decent guitar! Big fat neck just like I like 'em! Got a few others kicking around the house that I plug into a Marshall stack (that I gotta get repaired because my toddler left it turned on all day while I was at work with nothing plugged in to it. Not good for a tube amp. Fried something inside).
Yes, this was bizarre beyond words. One of these people replaced his ivory keys with plastic so that he wouldn’t have any problems.
Teles? Don’t even ask! I had five, but am down to four, as i gave a mint ‘86 MIJ to my amp tech. My favorite is a frat boy abused ‘91 MIJ, that I put a late ‘60’s maple neck on. It’s my Gatton/Hellecasters guitar. It’s 2 feet away as I peck out this post.
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