Last week Barb, her daughter Maddy, and I all had blood drawn for testing of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
All results came back negative. We were pretty certain Barb and I would be negative. But Maddy was working in Brooklyn, New York until late March and told us horror stories of how tight people were packed on the subways. So, when she came home she was in quarantine for a while. But we thought maybe she picked it up without symptoms. Nope.
Trump just said there are very “fine people” in media.
I am shocked and outraged.
Tim Pool @Timcast
Tweeted on May 8, 2020
[In case you don’t get the joke, it is in reference to the fake news a few months back which claimed Trump said white supremacist were fine people.—Joe]
Since the COVID-19 restrictions went into place Barb and I have been taking a lot of walks around the neighborhood. The Seattle area rain, fog, and moss is a bit of a downer but it’s better than being in the house all the time.
One of my web cams captured this image a couple weeks ago:
This was on the farm near Orofino Idaho where I grew up. And I don’t ever recall seeing a bird with these markings before. Any idea what type of bird it is?
I was in Idaho last weekend to do some Boomershoot stuff. No Boomershoot this year but there were various maintenance items to be taken care of.
I spent some time in Orofino and as I was driving into town I noticed a long line of stationary railroad tanker cars. I did my business in town and then stopped to look at the cars on my way out.
With the huge drop in demand for oil products, I suspected they were full of oil because the oil producers were running out of storage space. I’m nearly certain that hypothesis was incorrect. As near as I could tell the tanks were empty. The cars had been stationary for a while too. Notice the rust on the wheel:
According to the odometer on my vehicle the line of cars was about 1.1 miles long. And part of that line was double wide.
A couple days later I drove through Lenore. There I found another line of tanker cars.
This gave me visions of Atlas Shrugged as I thought of the economy grinding to a halt.
Federal authorities found more than 23,000 rounds of ammunition, 90 guns and tactical gear inside the home of a Midlands Technical College student who researched mass shootings, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
That figures out to only about 255 rounds per gun. That’s a little light on the ammo side.
When I read the various headlines I wondered why the Feds were hassling him. It turns out he was defrauding a bunch of different people and/or businesses:
According to an affidavit, the ATF’s investigation began in October 2018 after getting a tip about Kimpton’s PayPal transactions.
According to the document, Kimpton used false names to buy the items from sellers and retailers from PayPal accounts—and then contested the sale, saying he never got the items. The affidavit said that left Kimpton with the items and the sellers without payment.
Agents believed this scheme started in June 2018. They executed a search warrant for Kimpton’s home on April 20, 2020.
Okay. He deserved the wire fraud and mail fraud charges. The machine gun charge for the bump stocks? Not so much. But, it’s not totally bogus.
I am a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, with which I have been associated since 1985, and am the author of three books on the American civil justice system. My most recent book, The Rule of Lawyers (St. Martin’s, 2003), published in January, includes a chapter exploring the origins and objectives of the movement seeking to make makers and distributors of guns pay for criminals’ misuse of their wares. I conclude that the gun suits are at best an assault on sound tenets of individual responsibility, and at worst a serious abuse of legal process. Even more ominously, the suits demonstrate how a pressure group can employ litigation to attempt an end run around democracy, in search of victories in court that it has been unable to obtain at the ballot box. Finally, I argue that strong Congressional action to restrict litigation of this type is not only consistent with a due regard for federalism and state autonomy, but is in fact required by it.
Walter K. Olson
April 2, 2003
PROTECTION OF LAWFUL COMMERCE IN ARMS ACT HEARING
BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
[Reading the transcript was interesting. At that time, prior to the Heller Decision in 2008, SCOTUS had not definitively stated the right to keep and bear arms was an individual right. This was an issue in the hearings:
Mr. SCOTT. Thank you. In the finding, Mr. Keane, on the finding number one, citizens have a right protected by the second amendment to the United States Constitution to keep and bear arms, I notice it says ”citizens” and not ”a citizen.” there is no individual right in the Constitution to bear arms, is there?
Those were dark days.—Joe]
Henigan believes that it is imperative to steer the argument about guns away from the problematic area of criminal use, with its inconvenient focus on criminals, and toward the matter of guns in the home—incidents of suicide, accidental shootings, and domestic violence. This is an important shift, because it allows the gun debate to be recast as a health issue. Henigan told the Castano lawyers about the many studies that have considered guns in an epidemiological context; in other words, guns should be thought of as pathogens, and gun ownership, perhaps, as a disease.
Peter J. Boyer
May 17, 1999
BIG GUNS
The New Yorker
[I was rearranging some things in my bookcase and found the May 1999 issue of The New Yorker. The quote above is from one of the articles. Viewing the article online requires payment. The picture below is the entire second page of the article.
See also:
I find the wording of Henigan’s response to congressman Feeney interesting. Henigan is a lawyer and I’m sure he chose those words carefully. He doesn’t say he believes the characterizing is invalid. He only says he doesn’t endorse it. There is a reason I call him “Half-Truth Henigan”.
The mid and late 1990 were very dark days for the rights of gun owners.—Joe]
The only way the country is going to get back on its feet is to haul all Trumpers into Quarantine Camps, so they can’t run around infecting everyone else.
And just leave them there..permanently.
Persuasion (@SonOfAlgos)
Tweeted on May 5, 2020
[This is what they think of you.
This is why we have the Second Amendment.—Joe]
The assault weapon ban is fine, as far as it goes. But since a real handgun ban is unlikely, to what extent can Canadians feel safer?
Hamilton Spectator
May 5, 2020
Assault-style weapon ban is like Swiss cheese–The majority gun crimes involve handguns. This legislation doesn’t address that at all.
[I find the phrase “feel safer” very telling.
The author could have said, “… to what extent will Canadians actually be safer?” Or “… a real handgun ban is required to improve safety.” That they said, “feel safer” strongly implies they know gun bans won’t make the average person safer. They apparently have some motive other than public safety when they advocate for gun bans.
Since this is Canada it’s more difficult to get traction with a principled statement of rights. But that doesn’t mean the victimized gun owners don’t have verbal tools to fight back with.
People need to demand gun control advocates openly state their motive for restrictions on self-defense tools. If they claim public safety, then demand they supply the data that restrictions achieve that goal.—Joe]
Nothing is so permanent in government as a temporary agency or an emergency bill. Crises bring into operation new government activities and new scales of spending, taxing, and regulating; they were not intended to be permanent, yet became so by virtue of entrenched special interests and bureaucrats, often backed by congressional sponsors. Act in haste, repent at leisure.
Robert Higgs and Donald J. Boudreaux
May 5, 2020
Past Crises Have Ratcheted Up Leviathan–The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Too
[Politicians never let a crisis go to waste.—Joe]
If a ban on military-style semi-automatics is an effective way to reduce the number of weapons in circulation and available for mass shootings, then surely a similar ban on handguns – which also have no legitimate civilian purpose, and which kill and wound more Canadians every year than any other firearm – would have a similar effect.
Friday’s announcement accomplished two things. It banned a style of weapon that has no place outside of the military, but it also reminded people who care about gun control that the Liberals have been inconsistent and at times illogical in their approach to the issue.
The Globe and Mail
May 1, 2020
Trudeau’s hurried assault-rifle ban is a weak half-measure
[Says the voice of reason.
Well actually… ignorance, stupidity, and/or evil.—Joe]
The United Kingdom has ridiculously restrictive gun laws, and right now is having a tsunami of knife crime. And what we’re not hearing is that bad guys have a steady stream of illegal weapons coming from Eastern Europe via the Chunnel.
Greg Scharf
May 1, 2020
Gun control is unable to contain the problem of evil
[It’s obviously not about crime. It’s about control and creating dependency.—Joe]
As the world faces the COVID-19 public health emergency, America is still grappling with another public health crisis: gun violence.
Gun violence and the COVID-19 pandemic are inextricably linked. As Americans are asked to stay home, many might be in closer proximity to guns for longer periods of time. This is a concern because even under normal circumstances, guns do not make us safer. Guns do not make us more secure. Guns do not improve the health of the general public.
Josh Horwitz
May 1, 2020
Via email. See also here.
[And proximity to cars and ladders make us more likely to be injured while using one. But this ignores the utility of these objects. Horwitz not only ignores their utility, he denies their ability of firearms to be used to increase personal and public safety.
Horwitz is liar and a threat to the rights and safety of everyone and should be treated as such.—Joe]
While the surge in firearm sales from federally licensed dealers has received nationwide attention, at least 16 companies that sell ghost gun kits have reported order backlogs and shipping delays due to overwhelming demand. The uptick in sales of ghost gun kits and parts have received substantially less notice, even though the increase in sales of ghost guns poses a direct threat to public safety and law enforcement… Because the proliferation of ghost guns is a serious problem, we write to request…information and documentation to probe how the ATF is monitoring, overseeing, and regulating the sale of ghost gun kits and unfinished frames and receivers, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Group of Democrats
April 2020
Congressional Democrats seek answers from ATF on efforts to track “ghost guns”
[<snort!>
The last time I checked the ATF didn’t have the authority to do any such thing. Furthermore people engaging in legal behavior should not be monitored, overseen, and regulated. They should, and currently are, for the most part, left alone. As they should be. That a “Group of Democrats” expects a government agency to engage in such behaviors tells you all you need to know about that group. They should be forever barred from public office, government jobs, and any government pension.
I also recommend law enforcement investigate to see if an 18 USC 242 case could be pursued. People like this need to be made into examples to discourage others from going down the same path.—Joe]
We’ve never had gun control, evidenced by the fact we’re overflowing with guns and the NRA has blocked every effort.
Sex Positive Dennis Prager @PragerSex
Tweeted on April 26, 2020
[So, which is it this time?
When confronted with a small sample of the laws restricting access to guns he claimed, “None of those laws made guns illegal.” Hence, it wasn’t true gun control.
I’m voting for, 4. Troll.—Joe]
So Giffords opposes semi-automatic gun ownership because it is “more effective than automatic firing of the same weapons because they allow for more accuracy without substantially sacrificing rate of fire.” On the other hand, bump stocks are a “serious threat to public safety” precisely because, according to Giffords, it mimics fully automatic fire.
Herschel Smith
April 22, 2020
Giffords Law Center Presents Anti-Gun Arguments That Contradict Not Only The Constitution, But Their Own Positions
[What most people don’t realize is rational thought is alien. Rational thought is a very thin veneer over a mass of beliefs and feelings.
In our culture some portion of us were told, expected, to think and reason. In general it may even be that you expected to go with that flow. But it’s tough. Reality is really, really difficult to understand. The vast majority of people have reasons for their beliefs and actions. Notice I wrote “reasons”, not rational, logically consistent, factually supported constructs.
Those reasons are far more than enough to convince yourself and can frequently even convince the majority of people around you. You can believe you have everything all completely figured out. But yet the majority of the time you don’t.
I suspect, but don’t know for certain, that in this case the people at Giffords Law Center believed they had a very tight, logically sound belief system. But what they actually have are “reasons”.
Those “reasons” are, in essence:
It’s circular “logic”. Until someone points it out one could be be completely comfortable with such a belief system for the rest of their life. And most people, when their faulty logic is pointed out to them, will try to save their beliefs rather than correct their thinking. It’s far less psychologically stressful to cling to their beliefs rather than admit they are wrong. Everyone does it sometimes and to varying degrees.
For some people there exists a cure. They need to feel safe in admitting they were wrong. The cost of such admission must be made low or a even a positive experience. High self esteem helps. A politician seeking votes can change their beliefs easily and even multiple times in one day. They value the votes and the power far more then their beliefs. The beliefs are no more a part of them them than a shirt or a pair of shoes. They change their clothes in response to their circumstances, why not their beliefs? And if they really believe it then it’s not lying.
For those will a low self-esteem and with a few people who support them in their irrational belief system it’s far more difficult to give up a firmly held belief. They may even hold onto their beliefs even when faced with their own death rather than give them up.
Anti-gun people tend to fall more into the second category than the first. Look at them and watch and listen to them. Most are timid, low self-esteem people. When they are confronted with evidence and arguments which contradict their beliefs they will shut off the dialog or dismiss you will a childish insult rather admit their belief is worthless.
There are exceptions of course. The power hunger politicians must be persuaded via power but the timid low self-esteem types can sometimes be empowered by taking them to the range. Teaching them to be good at something that gives them independence from fear and you have a good chance of changing their irrational beliefs.—Joe]
Democrats are so worried about Trump’s decision-making that they want to replace him with an elderly dementia patient with credible #metoo allegations. How can Trump learn to make good decisions the way Democrats are doing by picking Biden? Is that a learnable skill?
Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays
Tweeted on April 27, 2020
[Excellent question!
The answer depends upon what tribe you belong to.
If you belong to tribe R then no matter how many times people correct, shame, scold, punish, and ridicule you it will intuitively obvious to the most casual observer than you are beyond all hope of learning anything.
If you belong to tribe D then there is no need to learn it. It is an inherent trait that cannot be diminished in any way, certainly not by obvious dementia, and perhaps not even by death.—Joe]
Leopold & Loeb were trying to commit the perfect crime and never expected to become famous by their crime. At the same time, they prided themselves on their ability to throw off the shackles of morality and demonstrate to each other that they had achieved Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideal; i.e., the Superman, who arises above moral arguments that are designed by the weak to hold back those with the will to become strong. Despite the manner in which the present day Progressive elite camouflages its motives by appeals to social justice and egalitarianism, such Superman morality is at the core of much of our modern culture. It all boils down to survival of the fittest if there is no absolute groundwork for our moral beliefs!
Mark Knapp
January 8, 2014
Leopold, Loeb, Active Shooters, Modern Man & Superman
[I think this overstates it a little bit. Multiple, incongruent, moral philosophies can co-exist. For example, Jainism, Objectivism, and Christianity shouldn’t have a problem with the others and get into a survival of the fittest contest. Yet, they are very, very different.
Quibbling aside, his point about Progressives does seem fair. You can see it in their attitudes toward gun owners and conservatives in general. You see moral superiority at every turn.
In one specific case it was scary. An Obama supporting woman I knew several years ago proudly told me she and I were one of the “new humans” or some such thing. And it was people like us who would take over the world as lesser humans failed to keep up. She was sure we were more advanced and knew better than “ordinary people” on most topics.
She apparently didn’t realize I disagreed with her on almost every topic she had expressed an opinion about. I just didn’t see any reason to confront her on the multitude of absurdities she asserted.—Joe]
The leaders participating in our ‘Demanding Women’ series are doing everything in their power to fight the coronavirus pandemic and its intersections with systemic racism and inequities. From voter access issues to rising rates of city gun violence and domestic violence, these women are leading the conversation to demand a better, safer world for every American.
Shannon Watts
April 24, 2020
Everytown For Gun Safety With Moms Demand Action Launch New “Demanding Women” Virtual Conversation Series Featuring Stacey Abrams, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris to Discuss Gun Violence in the Time of a Pandemic
[It’s amazing how many lies, deceptions, and assumptions of facts not in evidence can be packed into just two sentences. That’s truly impressive!—Joe]
