Category Archives: Crap For Brains

People and especially governments do some incredibly stupid stuff. This is about those stupid actions.

Quote of the day–Tom Robbins

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Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics, in that it involves selective breeding.  The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such, and the latter breeds (assumed) facts.  The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future; the historian uses his to enrich the past.  Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.

Tom Robbins
[What reminded me of this is the Brady Bunch reading of the 2nd Amendment and related documents.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Violence Policy Center

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Washington, DC’s ban on handguns in the home has long protected DC’s residents as measured by the District of Columbia’s firearm suicide and overall suicide rate. The District’s handgun ban provides compelling evidence of how strict gun laws save lives by keeping handguns out of homes. The District of Columbia ranks 51st (last) in the country for firearms suicide for 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The District also ranks last for overall suicide. Maintaining the ban will ensure the health and safety of DC residents.

Violence Policy Center
July 16, 2007
Threat of Handgun Ban Repeal Puts Lives of DC Residents in Supreme Court Balance
[Apparently, according to the VPC, guns cause suicide. It’s telling they don’t compare the District violent crime, including murder, rate to states that honor our inalienable right to defend ourselves. See also this QOTD.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Ry Jones

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Try it yourself–I’m sick of the bitching.

Ry Jones
Marble Falls AR15 magazine backwards refutation
[From Ry’s video on how a Police Officer can put a magazine in backwards an AR-15 long enough to get her picture in the paper. This refutes any claims it had to be a Photoshop job.–Joe]

Iodine is now a controlled substance

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Via Tamara and Oleg we find out that iodine is now a controlled substance. Apparently it can be used in the production of meth. I just want it to make explosives.

I have some very fond, as well as scary, memories of my first home-made explosives which were made with iodine crystals.

This is what you get when people start believing you can prevent crime. There is no end of what they can and will justify once they buy into that repulsive concept. Legitimate crime control consists of punishment of those who injure others.

Quote of the day–Tamara K.

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In his article, Westen proudly displays his passport from Bizarroland, a place superficially similar to planet Earth, but where drooling idiots with hearts full of hate run amok absent guidance from their spiritual and intellectual betters in politics and academe.

…

I was waiting for the lizardoids to show up around paragraph seven or so and symbolically rape Gaia while carrying off Al Gore to be a slave on their homeworld, Karlrovia.

Tamara K.
July 5, 2007
*sniff* It’s a thing of beauty.
[And so is Tam’s snark a thing of beauty. I find myself quite pleased at all the attention given to The Gun Guy (Gonzo) email and the book and article by Drew Weston which was the basis of Gonzo’s claim that emotion is what wins gun control arguments–not facts and logic. Here is a quick, perhaps partial, list of the chain of postings Gonzo’s email triggered:

And from looking at my log files I see where Gonzo himself visited to see where I quoted him. The web is a wonderful thing.–Joe]

Enabler of death and evil

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My previous post, Quote of the Day–The Gun Guys, about anti-gun bigots demanding people use emotion to win arguments and their agenda in legislatures, deserves more attention. His email was inspired by Despite Large Majorities, Democrats Are Chicken on Gun Control by Drew Westen.

Weston claims people are at their most basic and inescapable level not logical. I’ll grant that he is not but nearly everything he says just does not compute with me. I associate him and his viewpoints with death and evil. I associate great emotion with the great evils of the world. Every genocide, the burning of “witches”, the war against us by Islamic extremists, racism, domestic abuse–the list is almost endless. Strong emotions and the exclusion of facts and logic have played a huge role in the killings of millions of innocent people. To endorse emotion as a means of “finding your moral compass” as Weston apparently endorses is flat out wrong.

Reading this article was about as pleasant as shoveling fresh cow manure out of a unventilated barn on a hot day (I’ve actually done this–it’s not for people with weak stomachs). Weston has the gall to claim facts are unimportant. Emotion is what is important and he claims this as a fact. There is no hypocrisy in his world view is there?

I was going to just ignore Weston’s factual errors in regards to gun laws but I can’t. Weston’s tries to convince us with facts and logic that facts and logic aren’t important. But he is so careless with facts that even if we were to overlook his hypocritical argument we just can’t trust him. Each time he erroneously states a “fact” it’s like he just broke out another window on his airplane. His argument is so drafty that no reasonable person could tolerate the ride even if his plane could get off the ground.

Here is a sample of the factual errors:

  • The Brady Act restricted the sale of “assault weapons” — Wrong. It was the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act passed in 1994.
  • The Brady Act caused 100,000 felons to loose their right to bear arms — Wrong. Convicted felons had that right infringed in 1968 with GCA68.
  • Hunters have a right to own firearms — The right to own firearms has nothing to do with hunting.
  • The National Rifle Association supports semiautomatics for felons — Wrong.
  • The National Rifle Association supports unrestricted access to automatic weapons — Wrong.
  • There exists some set of firearms “designed for no other purpose than to take another person’s life” — I suppose it’s possible but I’ve never seen or heard of such a gun.

I will grant Weston has a point in that emotion is a “card” politicians can and do play with great effect regardless of the facts and logic of reality. But this is not the way it should be. Emotions should be used by politicians to gain support for that which is true and logical. The “dispassionate mind”, which Weston apparently despises, should be the beginnings of any endeavor which has the luxury of at least a small amount of time devoted to planning. From the basis of what is true and good one can build up a web of logic and reach conclusions that will resonate and create passion. One should not start and end with conclusions and passion. To do that is to invite error into our thinking and that is why I see Weston and his ilk as enablers of death and evil.

Academia and other nonsense

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Phil has a post up about the recent Supreme Court ruling on using race as a criteria for determining which school a child is to attend. The commies in the Seattle media and schools are going nuts and Phil takes them to task:

Leave the social work to the social workers. Schools are a place where instruction is supposed to happen. The only real lessons that the Seattle School District seem to favor are those of “If you’re not white or Asian you will need the government’s help or you will never succeed” and “If you are white or Asian, you’re only succeeding because of privilege” being taught in all twelve grades.

Disgusting.

This reminds me of when my son James took an honors level sociology class as a freshman in college. The first assignment was to write an essay on how the luck of his birth (white, male, upper middle class) enabled him to get into this “special” class. He wrote that it wasn’t luck. He had worked hard and gotten A’s in every class since the fourth grade. He got a “D” on that assignment. We counseled him he had four options. 1) Drop the class; 2) Suck it up and take the grade even though he knew he was right; 3) Make a big stink about it with her, and if necessary, the administration; 4) Give her what she wanted even when he knew it was flat out wrong. It was his choice to make but we would support whichever route he choose. He choose 4) and got an “A” in the class and to this day we refer to that class as the “socialism class”.

Choosing to give the instructor what she wanted was probably his mother’s influence. I had numerous similar things happen when I was in grade school but usually in science and math classes. I always went with 2) or 3). I always got very high scores on standardized tests and occasionally the results were literally “off the chart” but my grades were only a little above average. Sometimes you pay a price for being right.

Quote of the day–Rev. Jesse Jackson

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I think people have the right to bear arms at a hunting reserve. But you’re not hunting deer with semi-automatic weapons. We’re going to keep protesting until America becomes more conscious of the domestic terrorism allowed by guns.

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Arrest motivates Jackson to fight for gun control
[Interesting. I’ve read the 2nd Amendment many times, as well as several state constitutions. It’s only been in recent years, and in just a few states, that I’ve seen any mention of a right to hunt. Jackson must be living in some other reality. But I suppose it could depend on his definition of “hunting reserve”. If you define “hunting reserve” as all 50 states with no bag limits on government employees then he is in line with the true meaning of the 2nd Amendment.–Joe]

Freedom or Coercion, Which Do You Choose?

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It’s kind of bizarre to think that we have a “choice between coercion and choice” which is an oxymoron, but technically we do have it:

In a just world, we would never need to waste a minute discussing this, except with our young children, or in elementary school history classes, but see if you can guess which will outperform; a Soviet-style, government-run monopoly or a free market (our current public school system or school choice)?

Walter E. Williams of course nails it as usual.  The video, done by Stossel and 20/20, is excellent also.  I especially liked the “rubber room” concept they have in New York, as it upholds everything I’ve ever said about our socialist education system (I do have to hand it to them as I’ve often said we’d be better off paying certain public workers to stay away from the job, and here we find that they’re doing exactly that).

Our current system really is anti-American, anti-choice, and anti-success, and it needs to be scrapped as soon as possible.  The best teachers and administrators will form their own, better schools virtually overnight.  The worst ones?  They can always pick fruit for a living.

Man on rampage kills 9 (with a machete)

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Damned good thing none of the victims had firearms, ’cause, you know, violence is never the answer and it only begets more violence:

The man then barged into a neighbor’s house, where he stabbed and hacked to death a 37-year-old pregnant woman and her three daughters and two sons, aged 1 to 9.

All I want to know is; who sold him the machete, how much money did he make on the sale, and is he proud of it?  How is it that a madman can so easily get hold of such a deadly instrument?  Why are iron and carbon made so widely available when we know things like this are going to happen as a result?  What are the Filipino legislators going to do about this?  What do the Filipino cutlery manufacturers have to say for themselves and their irresponsible production of such deadly products?

 

There is one word missing in all the descriptions of the victims, which bears notice:  “Unarmed”.  Add the correction and it makes more sense: 

“The man then barged into a neighbor’s gun free house, where he stabbed and hacked to death the unarmed 37-year-old…”

 

Here’s a news headline you’ll never see:  “Machete-wielding madman kills eight concealed pistol carriers.”

 

But some of our Great and Compassionate Leaders would prefer several dead innocent women and children to one dead criminal, shot by his intended victim.

Bigoted Brits

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An off-duty policeman observes a young woman with a gun shooting at people out the passenger window as her accomplice drives along M62. The officer reports it and soon the pair is pulled over with the help of other officers with four jeeps, two vans full of dogs, and helicopters. Being hopelessly outnumbered and out gunned the pair surrender without a fight. They spent several hours in a jail cell before the police let them go because they determined the pair only had the one gun which was a toy. Read the rest of the story here. A picture of the young women, and their guns, who had just been to a “Cowboys and Indians” party is below:

I wonder what the response would have been had they been in possession of a bow and arrow and dressed as North American Indians.

Had it been in Idaho had they been stopped they would have been asked to put the toy away. It’s spring time and we don’t want to scare away the dimwitted California tourists. In the fall you can bring out the real guns for hunting season and scare them all you want just by putting it in the rifle rack on the back window of your pickup.

I’m sure the UK residents feel safer now. It’s good to know all that tax money is being put to good use.

Quote of the day–Friedrich Nietzsche

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Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Friedrich Nietzsche
[This may explain why I despise most politicians and parties so much.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Mike Fox

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Some conservatives mulled that if concealed weapons had been permitted on Tech’s campus, the gunman might’ve been stopped. Yet, that doesn’t mean anyone in Norris Hall would’ve had a concealed weapon or that they would’ve been able to use it to stop the gunman; after all, more than 50 people were killed or wounded in that building.

Mike Fox
After Tech, common-sense gun control laws cannot be ignored
June 4, 2007
[As near as I can tell, “common-sense gun control” is a code phrase that means, “we must ignore facts and rational thought and do what make me feel good”. But beyond that it seems this guy isn’t capable of rational thought. Read that last sentence and see if it makes any sense to you. Mr. Fox, I have Just One Question for you.–Joe]

This could be fun

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Yesterday I quoted Robyn Ringler on her error in thinking the D.C. snipers used a .50 caliber rifle. Today she posted a correction. Although she had been informed of her error in the comments two days before that she didn’t correct it then. Yesterday she got additional comments about her error and then this morning she posted her correction.

Today she made another post and another error:

A guy walks into a gun shop to buy a gun. The gun shop’s employee performs a background check. The information from the background check which links the gun to its new owner and its origin (the gun shop) must be destroyed WITHIN 24 HOURS.

…

So, now, a crime is committed with a gun. Any record of where that gun originated has been destroyed. How do we trace it? How do we figure out where it came from? It is impossible to follow the gun’s journey when we destroy the records after ONE DAY.

The NICS check does not, and was never officially intended, to link a gun to it’s owner. That is what Form 4473 is for. The 4473 has been the law of the land since GCA68 was passed (1968). The 4473 is required by law to be retained for 20 years. There has not been any repeal of this records keeping requirement as Ms. Ringler believes. She is confused. But that’s not surprising, bigots confuse and warp the facts to maintain internal consistency with their world view.

I briefly mentioned in this post about the natural advantages and disadvantage on both sides in our “war” against the anti-gun bigots. As I mentioned then one of our advantages is that we have the facts on our side. Another advantage is that because we use, buy, and sell guns we know them and the laws governing them much better than the other side. Because of this lack of familiarity it’s easier for them to confuse and warp the facts. It’s also easier for them proselytize their bigotry to other ignorant people.

Ms. Ringler and other bigots have a very difficult time getting their minds around the concepts (thoughts about “small-minded bigots” come to mind here). The definition of a barrel shroud or a folding stock is likely to go right over their heads. But of course that doesn’t stop them from want to ban them. When they make errors like this we get to make them look stupid by pointing out their ignorance. In general they aren’t really stupid. They are just at a disadvantage because they don’t have the extensive contact with the subject matter that we do. That doesn’t mean that I think they should be given any slack. If they are honest people, and most of them probably are, as they become more and more aware of the facts they will have a more difficult time spouting their bigoted ideas in a sincere manner.

As Barb only too well knows, I enjoy pointing out the errors of others (I also like for others to point out my mistakes). Ms. Ringler promises to be a source of great fun for me.

Quote of the day–Robyn Ringler

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The fifty caliber sniper rifle, for example. What purpose did it have besides killing people? The notorious Washington, D.C. sniper-killers used the fifty caliber sniper rifle to kill their victims.

Robyn Ringler
Let’s Ban the Fifty Caliber Sniper Rifle
[The D.C. snipers used an AR-15 type in .223. The .223 cartridge has a bullet that is less than one half the diameter and less than one tenth the mass. Facts are irrelevant to these types. Then there were all the people with .50 caliber guns at Boomershoot this year, they fired hundreds of rounds this year without killing anyone. Were those guns malfunctioning when they were fired without killing anyone?–Joe]

Hey I know that guy!

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Reading the worst of the nut case anti-freedom, anti-gun bigot websites I came across this:

That kind of sentiment is exactly what we need more of online. We definitely don’t need any more gun guys blogging– they’re full of venom and vitriol, cursing and overcompensating masculinity, and instead of providing insight on the news, they provide rehashes of decades-old NRA lies and propaganda. We definitely don’t need any more gun nuts coming up with (or, more likely, just parroting) NRA catchphrases or repeating nonsense about how guns are the only way you can protect yourself– the fact is that guns don’t protect you at all.

The “gun guy blogging” link is to Say Uncle. I spent quite a bit of time with Uncle at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous last fall. The above characterization of Uncle is completely wrong. Uncle is incredibly soft spoken and full of thoughtful insight. Overcompensating masculinity? Ha! But then bigots don’t really care about the facts. Stereotypes are their currency.

The owner of the anti-freedom, anti-gun site visits here (Hi Gonzo!) occasionally too. When I link to the “gunguys.com” site, even with the “rel=nofollow” attribute set, he checks out my posting within a day or two.

He was a real piece of work

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Via Ry we find the Spokemans Review tells us all we need to know about the Moscow shooter. The following is just a sample:

Jason Kenneth Hamilton, the man responsible for the deadly shooting spree in Moscow, Idaho, was a card-carrying Aryan Nations member…

…

Hamilton had an extensive criminal history in Idaho, Arizona, California and Oklahoma, including arrests for violent crimes, domestic battery and drugs, according to court records obtained Tuesday by The Spokesman-Review.

…

He was arrested in September 2005 for attempted strangulation of his on-again, off-again girlfriend. A jury convicted Hamilton of a reduced charge of misdemeanor domestic battery in June 2006.

As he was awaiting trial, he was arrested for allegedly grabbing another woman by the hands and throwing her to the floor, injuring her. The case was dismissed.

Prior to moving to Latah County, Hamilton was charged with felony aggravated assault in 1992 in Lake Havasu, Ariz., and placed on probation. He was charged a few months later with possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended license; both charges were dismissed.

Hamilton was arrested in 1995 by the Tulsa, Okla., city police on a cruelty to animals charge that was reduced to malicious injury. He was sentenced to a year in jail, but the sentence was suspended.

He needed to be locked up a long time ago. But you never know for certain until it’s too late.

See also Ry’s report on the conversation we had today at lunch about the police response.

Just what I would expect

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From a “Gun Guy” email I received.

If someone is opposed to one inalienable right, such as the right to keep and bear arms, then it comes as no surprise when they are also opposed to other inalienable rights:

Terrorism suspects shouldn’t be allowed access to any weapons, much less these deadly ones.  But if the bill is defeated by the NRA, those suspects will still be able to walk into any gun store and buy a weapon off the shelf.

“Suspects” are whoever law enforcement wants to call a “suspect”. There is no due process, another inalienable right, involved. Everyone could be a suspect. But of course “everyone” is who this bigot wants to prohibit from owning a firearm.

Another thing this idiot bigot doesn’t understand is that making it illegal to sell a “suspect” a firearm gives people an easy way to find out if they are “on the list”. Just try to buy a firearm and if you are successful you can be pretty sure law enforcement isn’t watching you or that your fake ID hasn’t been exposed yet.

If someone is so dangerous they can’t be trusted with a firearm then they shouldn’t be allowed to roam the streets and buy gasoline and matches either. Either lock them up or stop infringing their rights.

For the Last Time; A Typical Fuel Fire Won’t “Melt” Steel

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The recent truck accident and resulting overpass collapse must have Rosie convinced that Bush has done it again, but here’s the deal:

 

Even a C-average Jr. high school shop student knows that steel loses almost all of its strength when you heat it (’cause, you know, they actually work with the stuff).  I can’t say this loud enough, but here it goes, “***The steel does not have to melt, nor will it melt in a typical structure fire, in order to fail as a support material***”.

 

Get it cherry red hot, and its like putty, or molding clay, in consistency long before it gets hot enough to “melt”.  Adding chromium and molybdenum will help reduce, but not prevent, this phenomenon, which is one reason why so many gun barrels are made of chrome/moly steel.

 

No matter; every account I’ve heard to date in reference to WTC, and this latest event in Caleeforn-ya, has used the word “melt” or “melted” to refer to the resulting structural failures, displaying in sharp relief the monumental ignorance of not just the average journalist, but every last one of them.

 

And not a single one of any import, it would seem, bothered to look up the properties of various steels at various temperatures on that there internet thingy, presumably because it would have taken a whopping fifteen minutes of one assistant’s time.  Looking up facts is not in their job description, apparently, nor in Rosie O’s.  Facts get in the way of so many things…

 

On a related note:  After hearing of the scope of the recent lorry crackup in California, “Republican” Gov., Arnold Schwartzenblather, who ran his campaign using conservative-sounding rhetoric, made the following statement in his response: “Everyone is going to get a free ride.” (And he meant it)

 

That is a perfect example of why the Republican Party does not now own the House, the Senate and the Whitehouse for the rest of the foreseeable future– they just cannot grasp the concept of Liberty, but instead merely talk about it as part of their shtick, offering themselves as the less socialist socialists in the big, socialist bag of nuts.

No Surprises Here

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Try firing a Lefty Prof for advocating socialist revolution, then sit back and listen to all the claims of violating civil rights, our precious academic freedoms being squashed, etc., etc..

Professor fired over class discussion of shootings.

This time however, you have a professor discussing a current event, with apparent overtones of support for the Bill of Rights.  So he gets fired (what “obscene epithet” was used is not made at all clear).

There’s no real news here, in that most of you would have accurately predicted the outcome.

My question is; How is this going to be turned around?

My answer is; As soon as we get government out of the education business (you think that if people had a choice in the matter, they’d choose to fund this sort of bilge?)

And yet there is no apparent movement in the direction of a free market in education.  Why?  Will anyone, when pressed, actually stand up and proclaim that they believe a socialist institution will outperform a free market– that a coercively funded, compulsory institution will find better and more efficient ways to serve the public than a free and unfettered marketplace defined by competition and choice?

Any takers on that one?  Hmmm?   Tell us how Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao had it all figured out, and how Jefferson, Washington and Franklin were a bunch of idiots!  Get it all off your chest!  This is your moment!  Stand up and make yourselves proud!  Include full details.

Update:  Yeah, I know.  It is defined as a Catholic Liberal Arts School.  Still–don’t tell me this sort of thing would be at all common in a free market.

They have a “Campus Preparedness Committee ” there.  One wonders what they do there for preparation.