In comments here, regarding Hollywood’s lack of ideas and their focus on remakes, I predicted a new series of the Three Stooges. Turns out I was right on time. They have the movie coming out this month. I’ll guess that the new series is already in the works. The Marx Brothers and then Silent flicks to follow, I suppose.
These are the people who accuse us of being “backward” or “simple-minded”.
Don’t forget it. This is (partially) in response to the QOTD below.
The argument for liberty is primarily a moral one. Many people focus on cause and effect. We could dig into detail after detail, analyzing this and that cause and this and that effect. In that pursuit, yes, we will find much evidence in favor of liberty.
But liberty is not on trial. Oh no, Young Grasshopper. This may be news to most people, but it is the socialist/communist/Fascist (statist) bloc that is on trail. I hereby accuse it of willfully conspiring to perpetrate envy, hopelessness, fraud, grand larceny, stagnation, decline, anger, hate, conflict, assault, battery, chaos, and mass murder.
It is not up to us to defend liberty as such. We who support and uphold it are the plaintiffs, see? Liberty needs no defense in that sense, because it has done nothing wrong. It needs to be taught, yes, but if any fingers of blame are to be pointed, they should be pointed at the statists, and if any defense need to be mounted, let the accused try to defend their crimes. Let them point back and leer at us— but always understand that they are the accused and we are (liberty is) the injured party.
Ultimately it comes down to the fact that Man, by nature, yearns to be free. Sure; with our liberty intact, we do vastly better than we ever do without it, but the argument is primarily a moral one. Right and wrong. Freedom verses force. Choice verses coercion. Good verses evil. America was founded on that principle. Isn’t it time we strive to understand, and then to fulfill America’s Promise of Liberty? For once?
The plaintiff doesn’t walk into the courtroom with a defense attorney at his side. He may need a good prosecutor, but he doesn’t need a defense. Republicans of course have never understood it. A plaintiff or a procesuter who is constantly defending himself, with the perpetrator sitting in judgement, is a blithering fool.
Their words and the things they choose to defend prove again that the Brady Center is not merely rooting for the criminal element, they are offering to hold their coats and act as lookout during the murder, rape or robbery of the law abiding citizens.
Windy Wilson
April 5, 2012
Comment to Quote of the day—Gura & Prossessky.
[While I do not believe people of the Brady Center intend this to be the result I am certain this is the unintended consequence of their actions.
Many of these people have no rational belief system and some don’t even have a grasp of what rational thought is but some do. My model for those who have a quasi rational belief system is that they are only vaguely aware of these unintended consequences.
Those of us on the side of individual rights are willing to accept the unintended consequences of freedom. Those unintended consequences include crimes and accidents involving firearms.
As Thomas Sowell made very clear in one of his essays from the 1980s (read Compassion Versus Guilt, and other Essays) and in a great many of his other writings and lectures, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
The proper question then becomes, “Which set of tradeoffs is better?” And digging still deeper, “How do you measure ‘better'”? But as near as I can tell our opponents are unwilling, or perhaps unable, to even acknowledge there are no solutions. Yet the real debate should be at least three levels deeper.–Joe]
A lot of people (both conservatives and liberals) are going to end up being embarrassed by their instant, snap judgments about this case.
The focus on a single case to evaluate laws that have been in effect for years in over 40 states is troubling enough. But right now it looks as if the rush to reform is based on nothing more than bad reporting.
John Lott
April 3, 2012
Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the media’s misleading rhetoric on guns
[The problem is that many (most?) people do not base their opinions on facts or rational analysis. Yes, this can be hard at times. Stirring up emotions or allowing your emotions to rule your actions “gets things done” but at what cost? The cost is wasted resources, bad law, and injustice.—Joe]
The growth of TSA’s bureaucracy has outpaced the number of travelers the agency was designed to protect.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)
March 28, 2012
How many airport security screeners is too many?
[I went through the Moscow/Pullman airport a few weeks ago and counted six TSA agents. There could have been more in back out of sight. 15 years ago, with only slightly less of passenger traffic, there was one security agent.
There are some things government is really good at—spending lots of other people’s money is near the top of that list.
If you have a desire to waste huge amounts of money then giving it to the government is probably a near optimal method of having your desires realized. If you merely burn your money and don’t get it completely burned someone could come along and recover a portion of it. Money given to the government is much less likely to incur those sort of risks.—Joe]
Is the purpose of legal proceedings to get at the truth or to provide media entertainment?
Thomas Sowell
March 12, 1998
Media Circus versus Justice
[Sowell was referring to the Monica Lewinski/President Clinton media circus but it applies just as well to the Martin/Zimmerman media circus.—Joe]
It cannot be overlooked that the statutes strip peaceable, law abiding citizens of the right to arm themselves in defense of hearth and home, striking at the very core of the Second Amendment. As such, these laws, much like those involved in Heller, are at the “far end of the spectrum of infringement on protected Second Amendment rights.”
Judge Malcolm J. Howard
Senior United States district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina
March 29, 2012
MICHAEL BATEMAN, VIRGIL GREEN, FORREST MINGES, JR., GRNC/FFE, INC., and SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION, INC.,
Plaintiffs,
v. BEVERLY PERDUE & REUBEN F.
YOUNG, Defendants.
[This was a ban on the possession of firearms outside the home during a natural disaster or other emergency..
A few years ago the Brady Campaign was claiming a complete ban on firearms was constitutional. Their brief in the Heller case specifically claimed “the Second Amendment guarantees no right to possess firearms unless in connection with service in a state-regulated militia.”
They retreated to a position of advocating severe restrictions carrying guns outside the home. A position they strongly advocated as recently as a couple weeks ago, “Maryland and other states with more restrictive laws have chosen not to make Florida’s mistake. Their choices should be respected by the courts. Nothing in Heller, or in the Constitution, suggests otherwise.”
Now it has now been ruled this infringes upon the very core of the Second Amendment. It was at the far end of infringement.
Also this week the New York Combined Ballistic Identification System was scrapped, “the state has spent $32 million on CoBIS since the creation of the program in January of 2001, and not one crime has been solved with this technology.”
It’s getting difficult to keep up with all the wins we are making.
The options available for the Brady Campaign to have relevance have become extremely narrow and virtually no one listens to them in the small domain they might be able to eke out an existence in.
I think it is Tequila time again for the Brady Campaign and their supporters—if they can afford it.—Joe]
Or is it Moron Heavy Boots? Ry brought up the “Heavy Boots” phenomenon a while back, but I hadn’t heard of it until he explained it to me and I Googled it. I was disappointed, but the story didn’t surprise me. I’ve talked to a lot of people about a lot of things, having been in the service business and in consumer credit, for over 30 years. Richard P. Feynman wrote about similar experiences he’d had in his teaching career. It’s sad to realize how many people lack that little bit of curiosity that would lead them quickly to understand some of the basics of their world.
At the music store, I put up a poster-sized photo of the full Earth taken from space. You’ve all seen it, and some of you will already know when it was taken, based on the history of the mission. I looked at it a lot, just as a beautiful image that says something about the ingenuity of Man, before I realized that it told us a few other things. So now I have some questions. This is my Heavy Boots experiment but it’s on a bit higher level. These questions are for those who have no idea when the picture was was taken without analyzing the image itself. Forget the history and the mission, and so on. It’s a simple question for those who know the basics of our solar system and of Earth’s place in it;
About what time of year was this photo taken? How can you tell? Also; About what time of day was it taken? How do you know?
Here’s another one. Looking at this image of the moon, assuming you’re facing East. What time is it? Why?
One of my older brothers liked to mess with people when we were younger. When one of his young sisters-in-law asked him what those bumps between the lanes on the freeway were for, he told them they were part of a project for the blind– so blind drivers could tell when they were crossing lanes. “Really?” came the reply. He pulled off a lot of that sort of thing, trying to see just how fantastic a story he could tell and still get someone to believe him. I suppose his behavior could be referred to as a search for Progressive voters. If you’re ignorant enough, you’ll believe anything if it’s presented just right. Our coercively-funded schools have that part covered. They actively discourage learning.
Leno had a bit on his show last night wherein he placed a magician behind the counter at a convenience store. There were some plastic Easter eggs in a counter display, labeled “Insta-Chick” or some such. The egg contained a little foam “chick” that would expand in water. The magician, introducing the new and rare product to the customers “placed one in a cup”, then “poured water over it” and a live chick came out instantly. People believed it, even after he said they were “engineered in China” such that you could let them dry out again and reanimate them later, and you didn’t need to feed them. More “Heavy Boots”. “Vote for me— I’ll give you free health care” or etc. is along the same lines.
I try not to be discouraged. There are a lot of people who don’t fall for this stuff. They can tell from looking at a photo of our planet what time it was taken, know that mass exhibits gravity, know that we can’t all get free lunch forever and there’s no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.
The greatest delusion is the hope that the evils in this world can be cured by Progressive legislation.
Bonzer Wolf
Tag line
[At this point in time I am of the opinion that most of the evils in the world are the result of Progressive legislation. This is especially true if you include the Progressive movement of the early 20th century in Eastern Europe.—Joe]
I protect my family, my property, my interests and my life. If you did the same we wouldn’t need a Neighborhood Watch. Or Democrats.
Fred
March 28, 2012
Comment to New Happenings in the Zimmerman Case.
[That is overstating things a little bit but it does have a lot of truth in it too.—Joe]
It’s one thing to issue an executive order during peacetime saying private property “required” by the government can be taken if there is a national emergency. It’s quite another thing to enforce it during a national emergency.
Lethality is the nicotine of the gun industry. Even more than the tobacco companies, firearm manufacturers have been shielded from public scrutiny and exempt from health and safety laws that govern other products.
Tom Diaz
January 20, 1999
[“Shielded from public scrutiny and exempt from health and safety laws? Do the rights protected by the First Amendment have a Federal Agency devoted to the regulation of them? Do you need to pass a background check before you can purchase a book on religion?
Are you required take a class and get a license before you are allowed to vote? But what is more dangerous? A few million people carrying handguns in public or a Joseph Stalin implementing his progressive political views? Diaz is not only has his facts wrong he doesn’t even have a clue about the dangers facing humanity.—Joe]
To be sure, correlation doesn’t prove causation. But the experience of Colorado State and DC should come as no surprise. By now there’s so much evidence that higher rates of gun ownership lead to lower rates of crime that it isn’t hard to fathom why fewer and fewer Americans want to ban handguns.
Jeff Jacoby
March 21, 2012
A safer society with guns
[Via David Hardy.
As David said, “It’s staggering that the Boston Globe ran this.”
We need to continue the mop up operations in many places but at this time it is just pockets of resistance that need to be cleaned up. They will scream, yell that the blood will run in the streets, and fight us as best they can but their current strategy and tactics is a losing game plan. Their only hope is to change their approach and I don’t see anything that has a reasonable chance of working. Only terrorist operations have any chance at all against us and I can’t see that working without other, extreme, complicating factors coincidently aligning in such a way as to be enable them.
On the other hand it is easy to imagine we eventually will have constitutional carry everywhere in this country.—Joe]
Generally speaking, it isn’t “progressive” to want to repeal the Industrial Revolution.
Ken
March 18, 2012
Comment to Quote of the day–Helen Caldicott.
[But “progressives” aren’t progressive. They yearn to implement a proven failed political and economic system invented over 150 years ago. Perhaps it’s a mere coincidence but the rise of Marxism marked the end of the Industrial Revolution. “Progressivism” is the propagation of a lie that people desperately want to believe:
Therefore when a “progressive” wants to “repeal the Industrial Revolution” they are just being true to their nature.–Joe]
Via Sebastian and Glen Beck this morning:
“Every day, every school, every level… Every day of the week and really brainwash people.”
This is who we have as the Attorney General of the United States. He apparently interprets “The rule of law” as “When I am the law I rule regardless of the Bill of Rights”.
Is it any surprise he is running guns to Mexico so he blame it on gun dealers?
Solomon Friedman explains to House of Commons (Canada) how gun control, registration in particular, is “crime control theater”:
I’ve not heard the phrase “crime control theater” before but I really like it.
The Taliban position on peace is clear and unchanging; it would behead Americans wherever it found them.
Wesley Pruden
March 16, 2012
PRUDEN: A curious experiment in gun control in Afghanistan
[Yeah. That pretty much sums up my appraisal of the situation too.
With a little further inspection I realized this position isn’t all that much different than what anti-gun people have in mind for gun owners:
If a kid in a red state finds his daddy’s handgun and blows his head off, we’ll feel terrible (we’re like that), but we’ll try to look on the bright side: At least he won’t grow up to vote like his dad.
—Joe]
Free enterprise really means rich people getting richer: they have the freedom to exploit and psychologically rape their fellow human beings in the process…Capitalism is destroying the earth.
Helen Caldicott
[The first part of the first sentence is technically correct but she (and most others) say it as if it were a bad thing.
500 years ago the worlds richest king, with all the wealth in his country, could not have purchased a zipper for his pants, an elastic waistband for his underwear, or a single Viagra pill. A bare-footed, half-naked man dancing around a bonfire with a bone stuck through his nose was nearly state of the art in medicine.
It was free enterprise, capitalism, that gave put zippers, elastic, Velcro, and Viagra within the reach of nearly anyone. An only slightly more select class of people can have state of the art handheld device which can deliver images at nearly the speed of light. Of course those images might be TSA pinups of your wife, your daughter “gone wild” dancing half naked in front of a bon-fire, or of your politician demonstrating the effectiveness of Viagra on his stainless steel pierced penis. But still, Velcro is pretty cool stuff.—Joe]
This is from guest writer Rick Saxby.
I think it would be safe to say that pretty much all civilians who have a carry permit carry folding knives as backups to their pistols. If I were to bet, I would put money on the probability that the majority of them never train with their knives. In this article, I go over some points and make the argument that you should train with your folding knife so you can make it your primary weapon if need be. In my opinion, that is the best self defense. There’s a statement that I regularly read on forums which I believe is a poor answer to an important question. People say that carrying a pistol is a lifestyle and they avoid places that forbid them to carry a pistol on their person. This is not a solution nor is it possible if you are a member of this society. Here are a few of the places were civilians are forbidden to carry their firearms. 1. Post office, courtrooms (Jury duty), DMV and other government establishments 2. Colleges (Including Sports events) 3. Commercial airline travel 4. High schools (Including sports events) 5. Work: Most companies do not permit their employees to carry firearms to work Unfortunately for the public at large, shooting rampages commonly take place in places such as these. Most people who carry a firearm on a daily basis pretend that they can just make a habit of avoiding these places. But the thing is, for the majority of the people in our society, this is impossible. And if all you have is firearms training then when you are forced to leave your pistol behind you are completely letting your guard down for just a moment in places we typically associate with mass shootings. There are studies showing that someone armed with a contact weapon like a knife can travel approximately 7 yards in 2 seconds. 1.5 seconds is the average time it takes someone who has their pistol holstered to take out their firearm and get off a shot or two. So unless someone is very aware of their situation and also looking for attack cues, they are going to get stabbed. I would never tell anyone to bring a knife to a gun fight but my point is that I try to never underestimate what someone with intent is capable of doing to someone if they have a knife. Especially if that person has the right kind of training. I also have some facts that women and fathers who have daughters will be interested in; girls who are ages 16-19 have the highest rates of being victims of violent crimes in America, followed closely by women 20-24. In cases of rape, the ages of the average victims are younger than that, with half of the victims being under 18. One third of all the rapes in this country happen to girls 12-17. So it’s kind of funny to me when a grown man can get a permit to carry a gun but the population segment in this country who has the highest potential to be a victim of violent crime is strictly forbidden by law to carry firearms on them. And don’t forget about all the politicians out there who are dedicated to total and complete gun control.
The tragedy of it all is that every time there is another shooting rampage that takes place in this nation’s schools or workplaces, these politicians use these tragedies as fuel for their fire. And there is nothing anyone can do to stop these shootings from happening. They are just byproducts of a society that is spiraling out of control. To top this off, according to the IMF’s latest forecasts, China’s economy will soon surpass America’s in real terms by the year 2016. And the sad thing is we are also in debt to this massive communist superpower who does not allow any of its population except the police and military to own firearms. China is also beginning to strongly influence our financial policies as well. Maybe they have already started to influence some other policies here. I know that’s pretty far-fetched but look what happened in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. There was a massive gun confiscation in the aftermath of the hurricane. Here are some of the victims of the gun confiscation and how they described that day:
What if you and your family found yourselves surrounded by men with M16’s pointed straight at you with one in the chamber and the safety off? Make no doubt about about it, when the cops come for your guns the tough talk stops and you give them up. God forbid this happens to anyone but people in this country shouldn’t believe this type of situation will never happen to them. So what I’m saying is people should incorporate knife and club training into their firearms training. This makes for the most practical self defense training. This is not the “one true answer” that will save you and your loved ones from all harm but it is far better than just gun training by itself. Make no doubt about it; an awesome folding knife, some combat boots, a bulletproof vest and a billy club can go a long way when you keep a low profile.
What comes out of the mouths of Leftists that is purportedly the law is as related to the law as Cargo Cult is related to science.
Whenever some made-up statistic like this one is put forth by Leftists the blogosphere should accompany it with images of James Gregory and the Heinz Ketchup bottle from “The Manchurian Candidate.”
Windy Wilson
March 13, 2012
Comment to Quote of the day—Gun Victims Action.
[I’m not sure the reference is understood by enough people to get the message across but the gist of it is certainly correct.—Joe]