Rolf sent me an email with a bunch of memes. I’m going to post the ones I like best one at a time when I think appropriate (or just completely at random).
Thought for today and the entire year:
Good point.
Category Archives: Politics
Quote of the day—Michael Z. Williamson
A handful of effective assassinations a year would make the Ruling Class aware that the ultimate democratizer is death, and that the constituents they claim to represent expect results, or preferably, inaction, to endless blather followed by pointless regulation and jackbootery.
Michael Z. Williamson
December 26, 2017
Why America Needs More Violence
[I prefer trials, but one of the more persuasive counter arguments is that those of the Ruling Class are not going to subject themselves to a trial when they know everyone is guilty.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Leah Libresco
I can’t endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them. Policies that often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.
Leah Libresco
October 3, 2017
I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.
[Leah Libresco is a statistician and former news writer at FiveThirtyEight, a data journalism site. The three months she and her colleagues spent analyzing the deaths of people who died via gunshot wounds arrived at conclusions most gun owners had arrived at decades ago.
So, why do the politicians propose such nonsensical policies? It’s about the control of gun owners.
See also Quote of the day—Ramesh Ponnuru.—Joe]
Quote of the day—James B. Jacobs
The SAFE Act succeeded in making a big political splash. It generated widespread and intense protest by gun owners and mobilized Second Amendment advocates and advocacy groups. In 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo was reelected by a much diminished majority and Republicans regained control of the State Senate. This demonstrated that even in a very blue state like New York, gun owners are a significant constituency, one that punches above its weight because it includes so many one-issue voters. In the legislature, Democrats continue to introduce new gun control bills at the rate of about 50 per year, while Republicans regularly introduce bills to repeal or at least scale back the SAFE Act. Neither side currently has any chance of actually passing new legislation.
The SAFE Act’s impact on gun crime, suicides and accidents has never been seriously assessed, although both gun control proponents and gun rights advocates make extravagant claims. In truth, there seems little likelihood that the SAFE Act has had much, if any, effect since it has been only partially implemented, almost completely unenforced, and widely ignored. Its various provisions are easily circumvented.
James B. Jacobs
December 19, 2017
Assault Rifles and The Impact of New York State’s SAFE Act
[It’s a very factual article with near zero emotional content. I like it.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Jonathan Walder
When your proposals never would have stopped the massacre that inspired the proposal, it makes it very clear that the proposals are not made in good faith. As we’ve seen, the problem lies not with the private sale exception, but with the fact that the NICS checks are not particularly effective. Fix that before you start passing unenforceable laws that require drug dealers to run background checks on other drug dealers.
Jonathan Walder
December 14, 2017
Comment to SANDY HOOK ANNIVERSARY: THESE ARE THE GUN CONTROL LAWS THAT HAVE FAILED SINCE THE NEWTOWN SHOOTING
[“Fix that”? I don’t think it is fixable. Well, maybe getting rid of NICS and spending the money on something more productive might be considered a “fix”.
Prosecuting violent criminals would seem to be a good alternative.—Joe]
Quote of the day—John Feinblatt @JohnFeinblatt
As a package, “Fix NICS” would keep guns from domestic abusers — while “Concealed Carry Reciprocity” would force states to allow people to carry concealed guns in public even if they are domestic abusers, have other dangerous histories, or lack even the most basic safety training to carry concealed guns in public.
John Feinblatt @JohnFeinblatt
President of Everytown for Gun Safety
December 8, 2017
NRA hijacks first bipartisan gun bill in years. Now it’s too dangerous to pass.
[There is a reason no one ever says anti-gun people are smart.
Here we have one of these mental midgets apparently unable to avoid asserting two incompatible conclusions in the same sentence. If Fix NICS keeps guns from domestic abusers, because they are prohibited from firearms possession, then how can CCR force states to allow something Fix NICS prevented?
This sort of thing happens so frequently we have a name for it. It’s called Peterson Syndrome. Logical thought is beyond their capability.
I wish we could just laugh these idiots out of the political arena but unfortunately there are too many people with these type of mental issues.—Joe]
Quote of the day—NRA
Despite scare tactics by the bill’s opponents, concealed-carry licensees as a group have proven to be more law-abiding than the general population and even the police. We are on the eve of passing the most expansive piece of self-defense legislation in the history of Congress.
NRA
December 6, 2017
House approves concealed-carry reciprocity, gun bill faces challenge in Senate
[The first sentence is factual and verifiable. See, for example, Comparing conviction rates between police and concealed carry permit holders.
The second sentence is somewhat subjective but I am in agreement with it.—Joe]
Protection from infringement
There have been people expressing concern H.R. 38, which intents to provide a means by which nonresidents of a State whose residents may carry concealed firearms may also do so in the State, will be ignored by some state and local political jurisdictions. While it is true criminals tend to continue doing criminal things the bill provides some relief for the victims of these particular criminals:
(2) When a person asserts this section as a defense in a criminal proceeding, the prosecution shall bear the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the conduct of the person did not satisfy the conditions set forth in subsections (a) and (b).
(3) When a person successfully asserts this section as a defense in a criminal proceeding, the court shall 10 award the prevailing defendant a reasonable attorney’s fee.
(d)(1) A person who is deprived of any right, privilege, or immunity secured by this section, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State or any political subdivision thereof, may bring an action in any appropriate court against any other person, including a State or political subdivision thereof, who causes the person to be subject to the deprivation, for damages or other appropriate relief.
(2) The court shall award a plaintiff prevailing in an action brought under paragraph (1) damages and such other relief as the court deems appropriate, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.
This is a good first step and would seen to me it hints that pro-rights federal administrations can, and perhaps will, utilize existing law:
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
It wouldn’t take very many government criminals being arrested, let alone successfully prosecuted, before the criminal class of these political jurisdictions would get the message and decide they had more important business to attend to than prey upon innocent people exercising their specific enumerated rights.
While H.R. 38 isn’t the end result we want, it’s a significant step in the correct direction.
Quote of the day—Alan Gottlieb
We’re one step closer to fully restoring the Second Amendment as it was originally intended. Now, if the Senate can follow the House lead and pass this measure, law abiding American gun owners will no longer have to fear wrongful arrest and even imprisonment for having a firearm for personal protection as they travel from state to state.
Alan Gottlieb
CCRKBA Chairman
December 6, 2017
CCRKBA HAILS CONCEALED CARRY RECIPROCITY VICTORY
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Gary North
When Deng Xiaoping inaugurated an agricultural reform in 1979 which relied heavily on private ownership, he launched the most impressive period of economic growth that any large country has ever experienced. But that ended socialist economic planning. When, on December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union was going out of business, that ended the lure of socialism among the intellectuals. They had always clung to socialism because they expected that their class would exercise power in a socialist regime. When it became clear that the Soviet Union was too feeble to impose its will on the Russian masses, that was the end of their infatuation with Communism and socialism. It was always about power. It was never about the logic of socialism.
So, in this month, the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution in Russia, we can rejoice in the fact that socialism is dead. From a theoretical standpoint, it was never alive. It was a corpse from day one. It was sustained by rhetoric, not logic.
Gary North
October 12, 2017
Why Socialism Is Dead
[Just because it is, and always was, dead doesn’t mean that there aren’t large numbers of people worshiping it and demanding, upon the pain of death to non believers, that others worship it as well. The Second Amendment helps guarantee you can exercise your First Amendment right to freedom of, or from, religion.—Joe]
Quote of the day—jerry the geek
You think we’re still holding our breaths in fear of a dystopia?
We’re already living in it.
jerry the geek
December 3, 2017
Comment to When will this boil over?
[I think I could successfully defend this position against anyone.—Joe]
Dancing in the blood
Gun control group sends lawmakers fliers with images from Vegas shooting:
A gun control group sent fliers to the White House and members of Congress with graphic images from the mass shooting earlier this year in Las Vegas.
The fliers — sent by the Massachusetts-based gun control group Stop Handgun Violence — invite recipients to “wipe the blood off your hands and end mass shootings.”
…
The recipients then have two options:
The first option reads: “I will vote in favor of background checks for all gun sales and renew the federal ban on military style assault weapons.”
The second reads: “I will continue to put gun lobby blood money above American lives.”
“When you RSVP, imagine these are your kids,” the bottom of the invitation says, above a graphic photo of the Las Vegas shooting.
Stop Handgun Violence says on its website its mission is to “prevent firearm violence through public awareness, education, policy advocacy and law enforcement strategies — without banning guns.”
“Without banning guns”? In the flier they sent out, quoted above, they specifically call for the banning of guns.
They lie. They ignore the science on the effect of mass shootings on legislation. They dance in the blood of innocent victims. It’s what they do.
Criminal constituents
From Philadelphia, via Paul Koning, who says, “Yes, they do want you dead”. Controversial bill would force business owners to take down bulletproof glass:
A bill moving through city council reads: “No establishment shall erect or maintain a physical barrier.”
Philadelphia is extremely anti-gun. Hence, one could easily defend the hypothesis that the city council considers the criminal class their primary constituents. Don’t laugh! In the Soviet Union criminals were considered allies in building communism. And it wouldn’t be the first time in the U.S. politicians deliberately sided with criminals.
Sebastian has some thoughts on the topic as well.
Quote of the day—Marjorie Decker
It is a privilege that we allow individuals to hold onto something that causes harm and death. It is a privilege to have a car license, it is a privilege to have a gun license.
Marjorie Decker
Massachusetts state representative (Democrat)
November 16, 2017
‘Privilege’ comment riles gun rights supporters
[So holding onto a kitchen knife or baseball bat is a privilege? How about a pitchfork or a torch? Or how about a bucket of hot tar, a bag of feathers, and a fence rail? Does the state of Massachusetts issues licenses for these?
Also of interest, “Are there hunting licenses and bag limits for politicians who have crap for brains and vote for laws infringing upon the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms?” I’m asking for friends who live in Massachusetts.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Jeff Snyder
The battle for gun rights is one fought predominantly by the common man. The beliefs of both our liberal and conservative elites are in fact abetting the criminal rampage through our society.
Jeff Snyder
2001
Nation of Cowards page 20
[This essay was originally published in 1993 by The Public Interest.
They don’t fear me. They fear you.
Chris Cox
NRA-ILA Executive Director
The NRA represents the common man and woman.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Alcibiades Anon
Sociopaths will inherit the earth. We are built for the chaos to come. We are built to benefit and thrive in this new land of opportunity. We must begin to raise our brothers and sisters through the ranks and teach them to function. The Trickster’s Path can help those that need to find their way. There are other sources, other ways. We must find the way forward. We must be placed to take the power that is ours by right. The flies have ruined our world, ruined our societies. It is time a new people take dominance.
We must be the guiding light, and iron rod. Many of us are in positions of power already, we must unite under our own flag. Emotions and fear have ruled this world for too long already. It is time for the hyper-rational to take their turn. In the chaos that will come we must lead. We must be the spiders placing ourselves in the darkness for our prey. We must spin our webs, and make our plans. If we wish to truly dance in the ashes of “civilization” we must be ready.
Alcibiades Anon
July 5, 2017
We Must Prepare for the Chaos and Violence to come
[Be careful what you wish for. This applies to empaths, sociopaths, conservatives, progressives, libertarians, everyone. There are many political factions and none appear to have a majority of power. If the rule of law breaks down too far then who and what emerges from the ashes may be something quite different than you imagined, or even could have, imagined.—Joe]
Lunacy
The political left tends to call anyone who disagrees with them lunatics. As Lyle points out, in some cases it’s about perception. When I’m in a mellow mood I give them a pass on being stupid, ignorant and/or evil. Maybe they just can’t see things from my point of view.
Then there cases like this (via a Tweet from Michael Z Williamson) regarding protestors who are blocking railroad tracks in Olympia Washington:
“There is reason to suspect that the blockade protesters are neither interested in negotiating nor in an amicable resolution that would result in removing the blockade without force.”
A protester who signed in with the name Franz spoke during the meeting’s public comment period, and read the protesters’ list of demands.
The demands, also sent to The Olympian in a press release, are for:
▪ The Port of Olympia to cease all fossil fuel and military infrastructure shipments.
▪ Democratic control of the Port of Olympia by the community as a whole.
▪ A just transition for port and rail workers to good, green jobs, and for the economy of Thurston County as a whole to transition to a cooperative, fair and sustainable economy.
Franz asked the City Council not to order another violent attack on protesters, referencing police involvement in removing last year’s blockade.
Reed Wing also spoke during public comment. He pulled a fluorescent green hat over his face and identified himself as a Martian sent to Earth to speak out in favor of the blockade.
“I come from the representative of the United Federation of Mars, an ecological and utopian society where we have abolished fossil fuels, police, and the exploitation of one Martian by another,” Wing said.
I think “Reed Wing” is deliberately misdirecting people from his actual origin. The available evidence indicates he is actually from Luna.
When the political left calls their opponents lunatics it’s a textbook case of projection.
Quote of the day—David Ropeik
Fighting for the right to own a gun is a way of asserting control against a society that many feel is encroaching on their values and freedoms. Millions of people with such feelings want guns less to protect themselves against physical danger and more to protect themselves from the threat of a society they feel is taking away their ability to control their own lives. That deeper loss of control fuels the disproportionately intense passion of gun rights advocates and explains what The New Yorker calls the ”conspicuous asymmetry of fervor” that energizes 4 million members of the National Rifle Association to effectively determine gun control policy for a country of 310 million.
People with these concerns have been identified by research into the Theory of Cultural Cognition as Individualists, people who prefer a society that grants the individual more freedom and independence and leaves them more personally in control of their individual choices and values. Contrast that with the sort of society preferred by Communitarians, who feel most comfortable, and safest, in a “We’re all in it together” world of shared control and communal power, a society that sacrifices some individual freedoms in the name of the greater common good. These deeply conflicting worldviews drive the central conflict in the fight over gun control.
David Ropeik
2016
The Gun Control Battle Isn’t About Guns As Weapons. It’s About Guns as Symbols.
[Via an email from Paul Koning.
Ropeik, while obviously anti-gun, does give almost fair respect for our philosophical viewpoint. It’s nice to see the debate framed with something approaching reality as opposed to straw men.—Joe]
Lack of real men = violence
The on-going “pussification” of America is leading to more violence, this time in schools.
There was a time when this would not have been possible. That was when the principle and superintendent were both World War II veterans. When I was in elementary school, the principal and sup. were nice guys. They liked kids. They looked out for things. They never had to prove it, physically, and that is critically important, but it was universally understood that they were in charge and could handle anything.
The very idea of having any kind of violence perpetrated by students against a teacher would have laughable. Utterly impossible, in fact. Sure, two boys might get into a scrap during recess, but it would soon be over. Even the old lady teachers could handle them. It was understood that there were men in charge, just within shouting distance, if they should be required. Thus a frail old woman could take a scrapping, healthy boy by the ear and set him down, and give him a talking-to about playground etiquette, and he’d never fight back. He’d sit and pay attention.
In our litigious, pussified, Progressive society however, in which the term “strong man” either means “tyrant” or it has given way to the term “strong woman”, there’s no one left to prevent the violence. Not in some of the more leftist, public schools anyway.
It’s a Lord of the Flies situation we’re building.
I’m not saying women can’t maintain order, just that it’s far less likely, the farther away the men get. Put women in charge, AND give them a Progressive, passive, left-wing “non-violent” mentality, and all hell’s going break loose. Fatherless boys in woman-run public schools are being raised for a life of violence and crime.
The government then becomes the “father”, but a loveless and tyrannical one. That, I believe, is the plan. We can therefore refer to that Harrisburg, PA school as a success.
Those we pay to preach to us
I won’t call it “irony”, exactly, for that would be unfair. AHA speaker has heart attack.
Heart disease is real. People die from it. I get it. It’s just that I’m remembering a lifetime of being preached to, agitated, made to fuss over our food, told we shouldn’t eat salt, we shouldn’t eat fat, then told that, never mind, fat and salt are necessary, then we’re told this, told that, do this, don’t do that, or OMG! we’re going drop dead any second! “Be afraid! Be very, very afraid!!!
“Are you having a heart attack right now? Are you sure? Maybe you are having a heart attack! Do you know the signs? We think you’re having a heart attack right now…” I’ve heard the radio ads to that effect, from those rat bastards.
I believe that worry, fear, obsession over your food (or anything else) is more likely to cause health problems than any of the foods (or most any actual dangers) themselves. Trouble is, the fear, agitation and obsession have been the main product, packaged and promoted by the media and the AHA.
So if all you heart experts are so knowledgeable that you could presume to tell the rest of us how to live, would you be having heart attacks yourselves? What is the rate, or incidence, of heart problems among heart specialists, compared to the population at large? Is there any difference? That’s a question. I don’t know.
And if you’re having heart attacks yourselves, maybe go ahead and study the phenomenon but stop with the preaching? When you have proven answers, then come out and calmly declare them. I just don’t want to hear another ad, sponsored by the Ad Counsel, subsidized with my tax dollars, telling me how I should live, assuming that I have the maturity, experience and intellect of a three-year-old.
Just stop with the nanny-nag, nanny state shenanigans. Then I might could take you seriously. Maybe.
I know people who can’t get through half a day without worrying about their food, or their environment, killing them, and that right there is a potentially deadly psychological disease, promoted and spread by the nanny state “experts”.
In any case, if I’m going to die of a heart attack this very day, at least I will have spent some time living without fear, and living without fear is a good thing.