Barb and I will be in Branson, Missouri during the middle of August to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. We will be visiting Ozark Pyrotechnics (who put on a dynamite shoot the week before Boomershoot 2006) as well as various activities both Barb and I will enjoy. If anyone else in the area and would like to get together for dinner or something let me know.
Monthly Archives: July 2006
Quote of the day–Greg Ansley
The introduction of tough laws to control guns and knives appears to be failing to keep lethal weapons out of the hands of Australian criminals.
An Australian Institute of Criminology study of interviews with more than 2300 prisoners also found that drug users were more likely to carry – and use – weapons than other offenders.
Greg Ansley
July 6, 2006
Tough new weapons laws ‘miss hard core of criminal underworld’
The New Zealand Herald
[We told you so. And a reminder of Just One Question. Thanks to David Hardy at Of Arms & the Law–Joe]
Lewis Clark Wildlife website updated
I’m the webmaster for the Lewis Clark Wildlife Club. I finally got around to updating their website after months of essentially ignoring it. Probably the most interesting thing I updated is the training page. They have a carbine class coming up July 21 through the 23.
Interesting times
A comparison between the early days of home computers and the current state of the art with genetics makes for some interesting thought experiments:
In the 1970s, before the PC era, there were computer hobbyists. A group of them formed the Homebrew Computer Club in a Menlo Park garage in 1975 to trade integrated circuits and swap tips on assembling rudimentary computers, like the Altair 8800, a rig with no inputs or outputs and half a megabyte of memory.
Among the Club’s members were Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.
As the tools of biotechnology become accessible (and affordable) to a wider public for the first time, hobbyists are recapturing that collaborative ethos and applying it to tinkering with the building blocks of life.
Eugene Thacker is a professor of literature, culture and communications at Georgia Tech and a member of the Biotech Hobbyist collective. Just as the computer hobbyists sought unconventional applications for computer circuitry, the new collective is looking for “non-prescribed uses” of biotechnology, Thacker said.
Computer hobbyists brought us the spreadsheet, BBS’s (forerunners of web forums), personal word processors, and incredibly cheap porn. On the downside they also brought us computer viruses, Internet worms, and gave voice to barking moonbats. Now imagine what might come of genetic hobbyists. A cure for baldness, a pill that really does increase the size of your penis, food plants that don’t need fertilizer or pesticides, and killer viruses that only affect people with hazel eyes.
I wonder if there will be anti-virus services like McAfee and Norton that you will have to subscribe to prevent getting wasted by the latest “script kiddie” that sets something free that turns your skin green or causes your fingernails to fall off.
The psychology of politics
As I’ve reported before (and here) when it comes to political affiliation people don’t behave rationally. Our son James also has expressed frustration at this irrational behavior. Here is some research (via Lyle at UltiMAK) that attempts to explain why people do it:
“These sacred truths are unverifiable, and unfalsifiable, but the faithful nevertheless accept them to be unquestionable. In doing so, like assemblies of the faithful since the dawn of language, they bind themselves together for protection or common action against unbelievers and their lies.”
–Nicholas Wade, Before the Dawn, p. 165-166When people in business meet for the first time to discuss a transaction, they often exchange what I call “trust cues” in order to reduce mutual suspicion. For example, they may recite empty phrases from popular business books, such as “win-win,” “synergy,” “principles,” “customer-driven,” or “raising the bar.”
Nicholas Wade provides a readable, wide-ranging survey of the impact of recent advances in genetics on anthropology. In one chapter, he argues that the origins of what I observe in business behavior can be found in early religious rituals. Religions produce trust cues. Trust cues are necessary for large societies and trade among strangers to emerge. They serve to protect people from cheaters and liars.
What I am going to suggest in this essay is that political beliefs can serve the function of trust cues. Political beliefs may have at best a tenuous empirical basis, but they function to demonstrate one’s membership in a trusted group.
I am impressed. That helps me understand better.
Quote of the day–James Huffman-Scott
That’s impressive. I’m going to have something to drink now.
James Huffman-Scott
July 6, 2006
[James just met “The Man” at Dixies.–Joe]
Orwell was understating reality
This “Gun Guy” must have been inspired not only by Orwell’s writing but by Gobel. From his daily email:
The gun lobby wants everything to be the fault of the trigger-pullers. If someone shoots someone else, they only want one person to go to jail: the person who pulled the trigger. They don’t want any blame placed on any of the other parts of the network of people who delivered the gun used in the murder to the trigger-puller. They don’t want the illegal gun dealer who sold them that gun to have any responsibility. They don’t want the legal gun dealer who sold that gun (likely through a straw purchase) to have any responsibility. And they definitely don’t want the industry that made that gun to have any responsibility at all, even though they likely knew that gun would be used by a criminal (because the legal gun market is already flooded with firearms).
…
And it’s a very important first step in realizing the truth about gun violence in America: It’s not just the fault of the trigger-puller. We all are involved in a gun culture that allows children to shoot up schools, and criminals to own handguns by the case. If we really want to stop the violence, we’re all going to have to take responsibility.
The manufacture should “take responsibility”? Why not the provider of the steel for the gun? Or the miner of the iron ore?
Mental problems, that’s the only way I can make sense of these type of bigots.
One question in the Democratic Underground
I suspect it was a troll trying to fly just under the radar that brought it up but still it was entertaining to see the DU people squirm. It appears the best they could come up with to Just One Question was this:
The author goes on to say:
There are three possible answers to this question.
1. “I don’t know.” In which case my response is, “Come back to the debate when you can answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.”
2. “No.” In which case my response is, “Then you should be advocating the repeal of ALL gun control laws and I don’t want to hear a single anti-freedom word from you on this topic again.”
3. “Yes and here is my demonstration.”
Well, he’s wrong. There is another answer — my answer, the only good answer. And it is:
What colour is orange:
True or False?If he really claims not to get it, then he can be given a clue: ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.
It’s better than what I expected. As Ry said in another situation, “Ah, the voice of reason.”
Commitment
Ry wrote about commitment the other day. Here is another example.
Both examples cause a severe cringing reaction in me.
Dr. Joe’s cure is worth $50K/year
It turns out new research has shown Dr. Joe’s cure for everything, more sex, is worth about $50K/year in terms of happiness:
English economists reckon having more sex can be as beneficial to lifelong happiness as an extra $50,000 in the pocket.
The study, done by no-sex-please-we’re-British economists and titled Money, Sex and Happiness: an Empirical Study, said that increasing the frequency of sex from once a month to once a week caused the same amount of happiness as getting a $50,000-a-year pay rise.
Researched by Dartmouth College economics professor David Blanchflower, along with Warwick University’s Andrew Oswald, the study took 1990s American data of about 16,000 people and generalised the results for males and females of all ages.
“The most interesting thing this study shows is that money buys happiness, but not as much as you would think,” Blanchflower said in his summary.
For a limited time only (until Barb finds out) Dr. Joe is offering qualified customers a 20% discount on treatments. Send a recent picture and if you qualify I’ll work you into my schedule.
Quote of the day–John Longenecker
Anti-gun people are anti-liberty people. There is no such thing as a righteous, good faith anti-gun position. Good people cannot endorse gun control.
John Longenecker
July 4, 2006
Repeal All Gun Laws, Part IV: Motivation Influences Perception
British Muslim attitudes
Some stuff to think about:
A SIGNIFICANT minority of British Muslims believe they are at war with the rest of society, the largest poll of Muslims in this country suggests.
The Populus survey for The Times and ITV News has found that more than one in ten thinks that the men who carried out the London bombings of 7/7 should be regarded as “martyrs”. Sixteen per cent of British Muslims, equivalent to more than 150,000 adults, believe that while the attacks were wrong, the cause was right.
…
Assistant Met Commissioner Tariq Ghaffur, Britain’s most prominent Muslim policeman, said: “The poll shows that we do have a minority of people within our community who do effectively pose a danger.
“The tipping point between someone feeling anger and alienation and then engaging in the kind of atrocities we saw last July or being exploited by somebody who wants to commit a terrible act is very, very small.”
Update: More numbers from the UK. As Ry has told me, it’s too late for some parts of Europe. I hope it’s not too late for the UK. Emphasis is in the original:
A SHOCKING 400,000 British Muslims are sympathetic to “violent jihad around the world,” spy agency MI5 revealed last night.
The figure contains 1,200 fanatics who are actively engaged in an Islamic “holy war” at home or abroad.
…
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Clarke said his branch has SEVENTY current investigations on the go. These are in London, around Britain and across the world.
And there are SIXTY people awaiting trial in the UK for terrorism-related offences.
He added: “This is unprecedented and the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating — if anything it is accelerating.”
Mr Clarke added there were two other factors “even more alarming” than the gravity of allegations facing the defendants.
He said: “The first is the majority relate to the activities of British citizens against their fellow countrymen. Second is the extreme youth of some of those charged.”
Mr Clarke said police had disrupted three or possibly four attacks since the London bombings — a year ago on Friday.
He added that Britons were being kept in the dark about the true threat from al-Qaeda fanatics. He said: “It is a very, very concerning intelligence picture. It sometimes feels as if the public are not well informed about the reality of the threat.”
Quote of the day–Abraham Lincoln
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln
[We have faltered. A great many freedoms have already been lost. There is much work to be done to restore our freedoms.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Ehud Olmert
If God forbid, they should hurt the soldier, our operations will be far, far worse. The sky will fall on their heads if they dare to harm Gilad Shalit.
Ehud Olmert
Israeli Prime Minister
July 3, 2006
Gaza Militants Deadline Expires
Mr Olmert has given the green light to the Israeli military to do everything possible to secure the safe return of Cpl Gilad Shalit, captured in a cross-border raid nine days ago. The militants had given Israel until 0300 GMT to comply with their demand or face unspecified “consequences”. Hours before the deadline expired, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel will respond severely if Cpl Shalit was harmed.
Quote of the day–Xenia Huffman-Scott
That is so bad-ass.
Xenia Huffman-Scott
July 1, 2006
During the movie Superman Returns as a bullet, in slow motion, hits, flattens, and drops to the ground.
[They did a very good job with the bullet. It looked very much like a real pistol bullet when it hits a steel plate.–Joe]
Update: Xenia posted on the same topic. She gives more details which I considered spoilers, but she and James insist were not.
Interesting people
I was doing my laundry this morning and chatted briefly with a young woman, 19 years old. She was on her way to do a topless car wash at a private club.
That must be an interesting club; very interesting indeed.
She was at the club last night and had a good time but was a little overwhelmed for a bit. Because, as she said, “there were three couples on top of me at one time”. She had to tell them just one couple at a time. Does she have a boyfriend? She did but he got really jealous and told her he was never going to take her to the club again. So now she just goes to the club with her mom and her moms boyfriend.
It’s amazing what people will tell you if you ask the right questions.
A good fisking of the AP on guns
This is one of those web pages you bookmark for later use: Gun Control: AP Blames NRA for Violent Crime
Bigots in the work place
Yesterday I bumped into a friend in the parking lot. We chatted for a few minutes and brought each other up to speed and discussed getting together with our wifes for lunch sometime. But the most interesting then he had to tell me was the almost mind boggling bigotry he ran into in a recent job interview.
My friend used to own a gun range and after ending up on the losing end of a lease dispute decided to go back into software development rather than reopen his gun range some place else. Of course the eight or ten years running the gun range shows up either on his resume or in any discussion about that gap in his employment history. He had been through several one-on-one interviews and was being recommended as a hire by them. Then he was interviewed by one last person.
For 40 minutes he was peppered with questions like:
- Do you have a problem anger managment?
- What would you do if you didn’t get the promotion you expected?
He didn’t get the job.
We, gun owners, are being treated like the gays of 20 years ago and the blacks of 60 years ago.
What needs to be done
Israel gave them the land they wanted because so many people told them it would bring them peace. And how did the Palestinians react? See my post here.
And then how many days was it before that land was used for rocket attacks on Israel? I can’t find the information to confirm it but my recollection was it was less than a week.
And what was the stated objective of party elected to power in the most recent election? To wipe Israeli off the map.
It was my opinion when Israel gave the land back that the world would then see, beyond any doubt, what Israel was dealing with. That people would realize the culture of these people must be destroyed if we are to have any hope of peace in the mid-east. I was partially wrong. As usual I made the mistake of believing people would think rationally. At least among rational people who have studied the problem there is no doubt about what has to be done. Let me “spell it out for you”.
Israel has tried so many “diplomatic solutions” over the decades that it would take weeks to enumerate them and their failures due to Palestinian persistence in the eradication of Israel. If the Palestinian people said they just wanted to be left alone and to “live and let live” I would be opposed the destruction of their infrastructure–but they haven’t. On the whole, they have declared a war to the death with the Israel. Those that don’t agree with that agenda should leave while Israel gives the remainder what they have been demanding. Israel has no other viable options. If they could be contained while the world “corrupted” their youth and “incorruptible” elders died off I would suggest a 40 year plan to welcome them into civilized society. But the Palestinians are just like Ted Bundy, he either could not or would not stop killing and he had escaped from jail twice (or was it three times?). He would be a threat to people as long as he lived. It’s distasteful, it’s horrible, and it will haunt many of us for the rest of our lives. But it’s the best of all the bad alternatives. I say to Israel, I’m sorry the job falls to you, but you have moral authority in this case to do what needs to be done. Just make it quick and be done with it. I’ll be looking the other way as the tears roll down my cheeks.
Quote of the day–Doug Larson
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.
Doug Larson