I think he’s a “moderate” in the sense that he approves of government invasions that come from the left and the right.
Glenn Reynolds
March 16, 2016
LIBERTARIANS not so happy with Merrick Garland’s record on civil liberties.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Contrary to opinion, leftism isn’t just about hate. Leftists are more complex than that. From my time as a red diaper leftist, I can tell you that a whole range of emotions are involved. Hate, anger, fear, bitterness, jealousy, envy, rage, greed, pride, smugness and paranoia (not technically an emotion, but it is widespread among leftists).
With such a parade of negative emotions, it is no surprise that so many leftists suffer from chronic depression, often from a young age. Even if they lose the anger, they still retain the attitude: that the government must fix everyone’s problems, regardless of cost and that there is an enormous right-wing conspiracy that is just around the corner.
The victim narrative of the Left is very infectious. You are always the victim and you are always owed something. The wealthy are always evil, while you are always good and wholesome.
Michael Faraday
March 16, 2016
The Mind of the Left From an Insider
[Amazing stuff in this article. Or at least it matches my confirmation bias extremely well.
The part about hate and being a victim really resonates with me. Emotions are how they communicate and expressions of hate are the means of signaling their virtue to other leftists. If they identify as a victim it justifies their hate. They identify with other victims. Those who do not identify as a victim of some sort must be the oppressors. And of course they always require a powerful government to right the wrongs they see inflicted upon them by powerful oppressors. The concept that powerful governments have been, can be, and always will be, oppressive is incomprehensible to them.—Joe]
Gun control is not about saving lives. It never has been and never will be. It is about control, even to the point that it causes innocent persons to lose their lives to violent crime. To the antis such deaths are an acceptable, maybe even a necessary, means to an end.
Justin Stakes
March 9, 2016
Are We Protecting Victims or Are We Playing Gun-Control Games With Their Lives?
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
The setting up of and maintaining a private email network as the sole means to conduct official business by email, coupled with the failure to timely return email records into government custody, amounts to actions plainly inconsistent with the federal recordkeeping laws.
Jason R. Baron
Former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration
Told to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2015
147 FBI agents are reportedly involved in the Hillary Clinton email investigation — here’s how the scandal took root
[Also, there were 22 emails which, according to Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,:
…are on their face sensitive and obviously classified, This information should have been maintained in the most secure, classified, top-secret servers.
As Bill Whittle said, “Here Be Dragons”:
If she is not indicted will others guilty of similar crimes get out of jail or escape prosecution due to lack of “equal protection under the law”?
If she is indicted will she drop out of the race? Can she take office if she is in prison on inauguration day? Can Hillary pardon herself?
Where is my popcorn? This is going to be, by far, the most interesting election I have ever seen.—Joe]
@Cmf68Kevin anyway, no one needs a machine gun, no matter how much they think it will make their penis grow
Cloudy @CloudyHawk
Tweeted on December 10, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
I believe that in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. I think it is the most important strategic place in the world.
U.S. General Billy Mitchell
To U.S. Congress in 1935
[Even ignoring the Aleutian Islands Alaska is surprisingly close to both Europe and Asia. It is less than 2800 miles to Sweden and Beijing, less than 2500 miles to Japan, and less than 800 miles to Russia. Alaska to Los Angles is over 1500 miles and Alaska to Miami is over 3200 miles.
But I don’t think it holds as much strategic value as Mitchell thought it would. Early warning of Russian attack on North America? Absolutely. Missile launch site for attacking eastern Russia? Sure. But it’s not significant in regards to the entire world. That is particularly true with the Mideast currently being the most important hot spot. Still, I found it an interesting thought.—Joe]
Good lord, he’s been President for over 7 years and you still have your stupid guns. When the hell is he going to take them already???
Melissa Crawford
March 10, 2016
Facebook comment on Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America page.
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
If Islam is unwilling or unable to rein in its radical adherents, they must not complain when we do so. There will be collateral damage, as regrettable as it may be. With the recent attacks in Europe and the United States, we may not long consider the Islamic problem to be simply one of law enforcement. There may be a backlash, and the peace-loving Muslims may want to consider how that backlash may affect them, should they choose to ignore the problem within their religion.
They might not want to play Cowboys and Muslims. Once the backlash begins, they may not have a chance to influence the outcome.
Pawpaw
March 23, 2016
The Problem With Islam
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
It is well past time to single out the naysayers and myth purveyors, help them with interventions and counseling, and get on with the process of training and arming the staff where our precious youngsters gather on a daily basis. Stop the lunatics from stopping reasonable, common-sense gun-safety laws, like armed teachers.
Alan Korwin
March 21, 2016
KORWIN: Moderate Judges, Armed Teachers And Guns Are Germs – Three Myths We Just Busted
[In many cases intervention is probably not appropriate. In those cases prosecution would seem to be the better plan.—Joe]
We found the argument “that only those arms in existence in the 18th century are protected by the Second Amendment” not merely wrong, but “bordering on the frivolous.” 554 U. S., at 582. Instead, we held that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.” Ibid. (emphasis added).3 It is hard to imagine language speaking more directly to the point. Yet the Supreme Judicial Court did not so much as mention it
…
A State’s most basic responsibility is to keep its people safe. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was either unable or unwilling to do what was necessary to protect Jaime Caetano, so she was forced to protect herself. To make matters worse, the Commonwealth chose to deploy its prosecutorial resources to prosecute and convict her of a criminal offense for arming herself with a nonlethal weapon that may well have saved her life. The Supreme Judicial Court then affirmed her conviction on the flimsiest of grounds. This Court’s grudging per curiam now sends the case back to that same court. And the consequences for Caetano may prove more tragic still, as her conviction likely bars her from ever bearing arms for selfdefense. … If the fundamental right of self-defense does not protect Caetano, then the safety of all Americans is left to the mercy of state authorities who may be more concerned about disarming the people than about keeping them safe.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
March 21, 2016
JAIME CAETANO v. MASSACHUSETTS
[This is a really big ruling for gun rights. It is close in importance as the McDonald and Heller decisions. The decision was unanimous. This helps put those anti-gun nuts who think they are one supreme court justice away from overturning the Heller decision in their place. It slaps down the state supreme court in terms that leave zero doubt as to SCOTUS displeasure. I just hammers the argument that “only muskets are protected”.
This is another nail in the coffin of gun control.—Joe]
new #Backgroundcheck #gunsense law: Men may not purchase a hand gun larger than their penis (or ammo>testicle diam.)
Doogie Howitzer@HowitzerDoogie
Tweeted on December 1, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from Linoge.
Well, I suppose it makes as much sense as any other background check scheme.—Joe]
I simply and honestly proposed that our schools, our children, should be protected at least as much as our jewelry stores or banks or stadiums, and maybe the Oscars in Hollywood the other night. The national news media savaged me. What parent wouldn’t feel safer dropping their kids off at school with a police car parked out front?
The political and media elites set their hair on fire. Screaming and screeching, they called me just about every evil, nasty name in the book. But in state legislatures and school districts all over the country, the American people began implementing what I proposed, placing trained, armed security in their schools. They didn’t wait for the president or Congress to act. They took matters into their own hands to protect their children.
As a result, millions of our children go to school today, no longer the sitting ducks of the worst and most dangerous of all lies – gun-free zones. The news media, protected by their own armed security, will never admit it, but today, millions of children are safer for one reason: the NRA. The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with the simple truth that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The politicians and the media be damned!
Wayne LaPierre
March 3, 2016
NRA chief tells Hillary Clinton to ‘bring it on’ in gun control fight
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Shoot to kill these extremists!
Norma M Atkinson
March 10, 2016
Facebook comment on Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America page.
[They don’t just want to take your guns. They want (someone else) to take your life.—Joe]
These groups have the need to combine and change names on a regular basis. They put out so many false statements that are so far over the top that their supporters stop being able to defend them. So, they are “born again” with a new name and an unsoiled reputation.
In contrast, how long has the NRA been around under the same name?
Lee Cruse
March 17, 2016
Comment to Giffords group merges with Law Center
[To answer his question, since November 17, 1871. This makes it 144 years, four months and one day.—Joe]
Those who say that you can solve this problem with gun control are engaging in a fantasy. Um, can you prevent some cases of this by locking up all the guns? Sure. Is that politically possible in the near-term in the United States? No. Uh, my problem with the gun control argument is that it so grossly simplifies what’s going on here, that this is, you know, we had tons and tons and tons of guns in this country and no school shootings for a long time. So, school shootings are not a necessary or inevitable consequence of having lots of guns.
Malcolm Gladwell
March 16, 2016
Malcolm Gladwell: Gun Control Won’t Stop School Shootings But We Should Still Ban Guns
[I’ve read a number of Gladwell’s books. Including Outliers: The Story of Success, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. He’s a smart guy. But I think he failed to study this particular issue with the usual thoroughness he has devoted to other subjects.
After getting the essence of the school shooting correct he goes on to say:
This is a, gun control can solve the much bigger problem of the kind of unpremeditated shootings done in the heat of passion or drunkenness or drug use that claim the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year. That’s the reason to ban guns.
This is complete B.S. without support of any data beyond his speculation. There are less than 10K illegal homicides in the U.S. each year. Hence there cannot be “tens of thousands” of “unpremeditated shootings” each year that result in loss of life.
Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
It seems increasingly obvious that the real infant with a gun here is America itself. Watch it stumbling around like a giant toddler, wreaking untold havoc and then screaming its head off if someone dares to confiscate its beloved toy.
It’s about time someone took the toys away for good.
John Niven
March 14, 2016
John Niven: American gun laws are just crazy, it’s time we took the firearms away from them
[H/T to Say Uncle.
Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
In a modern organizational environment you sometimes feel compelled to telegraph your feelings, but it is important to remember to not put them on broadband.
Brett
March 14, 2016
[I work with Brett. A co-worker of ours unnecessarily consumes a lot of bandwidth. This is a detriment to everyone involved.—Joe]
@MilitiaJim @wallsofthecity @JClaireBurke You love need guns I get it, God didn’t bless you enough in the trousers.
Nelson ⚒@NeLoNe79
Tweeted on November 30, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
When you have a society that can’t do things that need to be done because every change threatens somebody’s rice bowl or offers insufficient opportunities for graft, you’ve got a society that is due for a reset, not for incremental change.
The thing is, resets are often kind of ugly.
Glenn Reynolds
March 11, 2016
UNEXPECTEDLY: Walmart’s customers are too broke to shop. Fundamentally transformed!
The guy or girl who holsters a .45, or a Beretta, or a Glock, or an M&P, or a Chief’s Special five-shot revolver, for that matter, and closes the book on pistol selection can get on to the more serious business of pistol training and practice. The principle resource that satisficing can buy you is time, which is the one resource you can’t buy or produce more of, and the one resource that is ever in short supply.
Hognose
January 25, 2016
Pistols & Optimizing vs. Satisficing
[H/T to Tamara.
Greg Hamilton has insight on a closely related topic which is relevant here as well:
If during the time you were reading the latest “stopping power” article you were instead practicing to save your life you would be far, far ahead.
You should spend far more of your time and money budgets on training and practice than on your equipment. I know this is difficult and it’s easy to run down the equipment rabbit hole but try to avoid it.—Joe]