A classic. Marty Robbins had a lot of gun-related songs, some of them were even hits in their own times. Some are simple, others are somewhat more complex, nearly all are good. Happy Friday.
Author Archives: Rolf
1+1 sale (expired)
A shameless plug of self-promotion post. Today only. (14 December)
Castalia House is running a 1+1 Christmas sale: buy one physical book (hardbound or paperback) and get one free Castalia House e-book (details at the link). In fact if you want to buy more than one physical book, you can get an equal number of e-books without limit (well, other than the number of titles they have out, of course). Since Back From The Dead (the first half of The Stars Came Back) is now out in print it’s an eligible item. So if you are a reader, or know readers and are looking for a gift, here’s an opportunity.
Move over, fracking
Looks like the oil-party isn’t over just yet.
Short version: a new method to extract “unconventional oil” in oil shale and similar formations using microwaves to heat it is being explored. It uses much less water, and will be usable in places where fracking might not be for various reasons. To put it in perspective:
If producers can find a way to microwave oil shales in the Green River Formation, which sprawls across Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, the nation’s recoverable reserves could soar andenergy independence could become more than an election slogan. Even with existing methods — strip-mining the shale and then cooking it, or injecting steam to cook the rock underground (hydraulic fracturing is useless here) — the formation contains enough oil to last the U.S. 165 years at current rates of consumption. Microwave extraction could goose those numbers even higher. After all, there are more than 4 trillion (with a “t”) barrels of oil in the Green River Formation.
Yeah. Looks like we might manage to muddle through on that whole energy thing. Especially considering we might soon have nuclear frikkin’ batteries.
God’s humor
Sometimes something comes along and gives evidence that not only God exists, but he’s got a sense of humor. Such is this:
Now in print
Just got word that Back from The Dead, the first half of The Stars Came Back, is out in paperback and hardcover for those w/o Kindle readers. They are not “connected” on Amazon, yet, but I’m sure they will be soon. In the meantime, reviews are welcome.
“Mad Dog” Mattis
This being a sophisticated and educational sort of blog, thought I’d post something about the likely next SecDef, General (ret) James “Mad Dog” Mattis. It’s an interview by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution from 2015. Mattis sounds like a very thoughtful sort that will bring some much needed clarity to the position. Continue reading
Gun Song – Lawyers, Guns, and Money
A classic by Warren Zevon.
She wanted to be president…
But she can’t use a calendar. I’m talking about Jill Stein, of course. She raised millions of dollars, ostensibly to do a recount of the ballots in three close states. But she missed the filing deadline for PA, so she can’t call for one even if she had the money to pay for it. I’m sure she’ll find something to do with that money, of course. But I wonder how many who donated will realize they’ve been duped (again)? And how many will realize that someone this flaky could not possibly have done a respectable job as president. Ever.
The arrogance of the left: Wants to run the biggest economy in the world, and has more than 1.2 million votes for her to do it, but not only can’t run a scheduler, she can’t even be bothered to ask a supporter to do it for her.
FacePalm (my favorites are the variation of the Implied FacePalm)
“Smart” guns
Recent update on so-called “smart gun” regulations.
Upshot: it’s voluntary…. with an implied *for now attached. Leave it to the government to call for a way to make a perfectly reliable, simple, mechanical system, and apply a high-tech solution to a social problem that a) won’t fix the problem, b) discriminates against the poor, c) will make good systems less reliable, d) etc [insert all the usual litany of problems with this specific tech here]
Trump Tzu
The Art of Trolling. The dude’s a master.
You may have heard that VP-elect Pence went to watch Hamilton. Now, there are a whole bunch of ironies about the show, a virtual cultural-appropriation-fest, but save that for another time. For whatever reason Pence and his wife went to see it. They were booed, there were a lot of pauses, and at the end of it the cast addressed the VP-elect directly.
Trump fired off a tweet saying he was harassed . He then demanded the theater must be a safe space and they must apologize! The left replied saying that he was being thin-skinned, and he should suck it up. They were trolled. They just made his argument for him, that the whole “safe space” thing is a total crock. They bring attention to it. It’ll make people talk about it, and possibly reconsider the whole thing. Talk about a master troller at work.
The next few years will be very interesting.
(edited and added: We should all know that theaters have not been a “safe space” for at least 151 years)
Gun Song – Mr. Shorty
By Marty Robbins. Classic western tune.
The violent left
Filed under “why are they so violent, Episode number 54-A.”
A “professor” at Rutgers , Kevin Allred, tweeted “will the 2nd amendment still be cool when i buy a gun and start shooting random white people or no…?” He was reported, and carted off in an ambulance for a psych eval, which set off a tweetstorm that is hysterically un self-aware. Of course he’s the victim, of course it’s Trumps crackdown on free speech, etc….
How do they tie their shoes in the morning?
QOTD
The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
– Gustave Le Bon (1841 – 1931)
A sad truth politicians, government functionaries, con men, the media, and psychopaths (but I repeat myself) depend on. As a teacher, I have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard “will this be on the test?” from “smart” students who do well in school but are destined to do poorly in life because they do not hunger to truth or reality, but diplomas and accolades. They are fundamentally lazy and incurious. They are confused enough they think knowledge and diplomas are the same thing. It’s the sort of person that believes the story ends when the Disney Princess gets married, and Prince Charming will always come back from the war (or tavern, or brothel, or…). Continue reading
So, about that “reality based” community on the left
Now, to be fair, there are morons on in any large group of people that you can cherry-pick quotes from. No question about that. But the sheer number of quotes available from high-profile leaders on the left that spew this sort of thing to reveal their thought process is just amazing. Continue reading
First they came…
First they came for the machine guns. Then they came for the Black Rifles. They they came for the handguns. They they came for the airguns. Wait, wut?
Yes. Scotland has jumped the shark. Owners of unlicensed airguns can face jail time.
Up to two years. The pols there are bloody insane.
On the bright side, compliance rates appear to be low (roughly 8,000 of an estimated half million present, or under 2%) , so there might be a faint glimmer of hope.
h/t to Paul K.
Sanctuary
Seattle is proud to be a “Sanctuary City,” where lawbreakers can hide unmolested. Trump has promised to withhold funding from such places, which would save untold billions if he can follow through on it. Maybe he needs to get a Federal law that explicitly allows victims of crimes committed by illegal alien in sanctuary cities to sue said city for damages and legal fees, as they are explicitly “partners in crime” as enablers. Make it hurt enough and they will be properly incentivized to reconsider their position.
Musical interlude
Crank it up.
Epic Rant – Why Trump Won
PC creates Trump supporters
Interesting Reason article by Robby Soave “Trump Won Because Leftist Political Correctness Inspired a Terrifying Backlash”
I have tried to call attention to this issue for years. I have warned that political correctness actually is a problem on college campuses, where the far-left has gained institutional power and used it to punish people for saying or thinking the wrong thing. And ever since Donald Trump became a serious threat to win the GOP presidential primaries, I have warned that a lot of people, both on campus and off it, were furious about political-correctness-run-amok—so furious that they would give power to any man who stood in opposition to it.
I have watched this play out on campus after campus. I have watched dissident student groups invite Milo Yiannopoulos to speak—not because they particularly agree with his views, but because he denounces censorship and undermines political correctness. I have watched students cheer his theatrics, his insulting behavior, and his narcissism solely because the enforcers of campus goodthink are outraged by it. It’s not about his ideas, or policies. It’s not even about him. It’s about vengeance for social oppression.
The whole article, and some of the comments, are well worth a read. It’s not long. Speaking as a victim of PC weaponized speech codes, I agree. I wasn’t a trump supporter in May.
I am now.
Intellectual Yet Idiot
From ZeroHedge comes this Nassim Taleb quote.
“The IYI pathologizes others for doing things he doesn’t understand without ever realizing it is his understanding that may be limited. He thinks people should act according to their best interests and he knows their interests, particularly if they are “red necks” or English non-crisp-vowel class who voted for Brexit. When Plebeians do something that makes sense to them, but not to him, the IYI uses the term “uneducated”. What we generally call participation in the political process, he calls by two distinct designations: “democracy” when it fits the IYI, and “populism” when the plebeians dare voting in a way that contradicts his preferences. While rich people believe in one tax dollar one vote, more humanistic ones in one man one vote, Monsanto in one lobbyist one vote, the IYI believes in one Ivy League degree one-vote, with some equivalence for foreign elite schools, and PhDs as these are needed in the club.”
Yep. Pretty much. Those on the left celebrate diversity, as long as it means different flavors of leftism. They celebrate tolerance, as long as it’s the right tolerating the left. They celebrate inclusion, as long as it means including the left. They can gloat and say “I won!”, but the right is asked to “play nice” when they win. The left calls for free speech, as long as it is left-wing speech. The left calls for “safe spaces” for themselves, but also demand access to anyplace someone on the right wishes to be left alone in peace. The left calls their opponents bigoted, deplorable, hate-filled, narrow-minded, etc., but that’s just projection; they are blinded by their own bigotry, hate, and narrow-minded view of things.
But frankly, I don’t expect there to be a lot of self-reflection by those on the left; I expect tantrums, tears, and terrorism. They think “the public” is wrong; they will miss the warning the deplorable masses are sending them that it’s the elites that are going the wrong way.