Once a week my kids (all adults scattered among three different states) and I have a video call over dinner. After dinner we play some Internet games or watch a movie together. Weekend before last we watched Back to the Future.
That made this tweet from HollyCabot @HollyCabot all the funnier:
From Twitter:
Aside from the terrible tragedy of Floyd’s death we all learned something from it.
The lesson gun owners learned is what we must do to effect meaningful political change in ridding ourselves of oppressive laws and systems.
— Joe Huffman (@JoeHuffman) June 9, 2020
I don’t feel like the divide in the country is left vs right. It’s not authoritarian vs libertarian. At this point it’s sane vs insane.
Dave Smith @ComicDaveSmith
Tweeted on June 3, 2020
[Reality is difficult. It is also difficult to distinguish people without a solid understanding of reality through lack of effort and/or ability versus with those who are actually disconnected from reality due to mental defect.
Something most people don’t understand is that large numbers of people can share the same destructive delusion. Nazism and communism are probably the two most well known examples today but the example are countless and go back thousands of years in human history and almost certainly prehistory.
There is a mass delusion going on all around us. I have no idea how to connect these people to reality. It may not even be possible. Perhaps it will have to burn itself out. Perhaps it will have to be destroyed by those who are more sane.
I believe we are living in a remarkable time and place. A time and place that will be noted in history books for decades if not centuries.
This may be The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy. It may be something else. But it is something more than I have ever seen before and I remember the 1960s.—Joe]
The NRA is the nations oldest civil rights organization and there is a Facebook page with the name “Ban The NRA”. I find it interesting that Facebook allows this. Would they allow a “Ban Black Lives Matter” page? How about a “Ban Muslims” page?
Perhaps so. I’m certainly not inclined to test it and find out as I don’t have an interest in participating in that sort of movement.
It appears the ‘Ban the NRA’ page is open for anyone to comment on. Perhaps free speech is welcomed.
From a private group on Facebook:
Had a helluva time zeroing it at 25m, and at 100m it was all over the place. And some of the holes on the paper looked wrong…some of them were kind of…oblong. He’d bought some really cheap ammo online, so we were suspecting something was amiss with the ammo. Perhaps reloads sold as factory made. Then we got back to my place, he pulled the upper off, looked down the barrel, said it looked kind of funny. So I looked down the barrel. Then I quickly took my AR apart so I could look down it’s barrel. Then down his barrel again. Then mine, then his.
HIS HAS NO RIFLING.
It’s a fucking AR15 *smoothbore*.
The targets are from 25 meters. The one on the left is the smooth bore. The one on the right is a normal rifle.
I’m sure the “rifle” owner is far less amused than I am.
Via Milo we have news confirming it’s time for the adults to take charge (see also here and here):
A group of Minneapolis City Council members have announced their intentions to proceed with disbanding the city’s police force.
Council president Lisa Bender made the announcement at a Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block rally at Powderhorn Park Sunday, just blocks from where George Floyd lost his life at the hands of police on May 25.
Bender says that the plan is to “end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department.”
“It’s our commitment to end policing as we know it, and recreate systems of public safety that actually keep us safe,” she said.
One could make the case these people have carefully reviewed the history of the police in our country and others, decided the early 1800s skeptics were correct and we should go back to volunteer or privately paid watchmen and inspectors rather than a publicly paid professional organization.
Anyone making such a case would risk a charge of manslaughter as I might laugh myself to death upon hearing such a claim. The political left is composed of some of the most ignorant people I have ever met. Among other topics they appear to have no knowledge of relevant political history and/or how it might apply to the present day. The history of professional police forces? No. There is not any possibility of them taking that into consideration in this decision.
One could make the case these people don’t understand what they are doing. They don’t understand that the police actually provide a justice system for criminals rather than have them exposed to mob justice. Mob justice has no due process. Mob justice has not right to be represented by a lawyer. Mob justice has no consistence and proportionality of sentencing. Mob justice results in false accusations leading to being beaten to death within hours.
Maybe they merely clueless. Assuming no evidence to the contrary, at their trials they probably could claim to be useful idiots and get a lighter sentence.
The case could also be made these people know exactly what they are doing. This reminds me of the Sullivan Act. They are deliberately enabling criminals to prey upon innocent citizens.
You don’t think so? Look at the history of the Sullivan Act in the link above. They knew what they were doing.
As incredible as it might seem, they could be deliberately engineering the end of our constitutional form of government. We have people openly stating this is their goal. While I’m not entirely convinced this is the case for everyone advocating the apparent insanity I am certain it is true for many of them. And because of this people should be gathering the evidence for their trials.
I fully support disbanding the police because it’s the only way to save the Second Amendment.
Milo Yiannopoulos@m
Posted on Gab June 7, 2020
[I’m inclined to disagree with the assertion “it’s the only way”. But, I’m willing to discuss the plausibility it is one way.—Joe]
Via email from Barron. He says he laughed. That’s understandable. I didn’t laugh. That should also be understandable:
Those with borderline personality disorder have problems regulating emotional impulses and often experience rocky relationships. But new research suggests that many men find traits associated with borderline personality disorder to be appealing in physically attractive women. The study has been published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
The research was inspired by a viral parody video, in which a man provides scientific-sounding advice about the relationship between a woman’s physical appearance, personality, and her dating appeal.
“I had stumbled across the Hot Crazy Matrix (HCM) YouTube video and was struck by its popularity and media coverage it had attracted. It got me thinking about why it resonates with so many people,” explained study author Alyson Blanchard, a senior lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste University.
More information on HCM is available here.
If you think you may be dealing with someone with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Read this book:
It changed my life.
Via email from Boomershooter Mike T.
Very cool!
As the commenter Serious Söd6 said:
This is obviously a time lord talking about magic magnets.
Look, how easy it is to impose a dictatorship in Brazil, how easy it is.
The people are locked in their houses.
That is why I want, Minister of Justice and Minister of Defense, that the people arm themselves.
That’s gonna ensure that no motherf*cker is going to show up and impose a dictatorship here! Because it’s easy to impose a dictatorship here. Too easy!
A f*cking mayor makes a f*cking decree, handcuffs people and keeps everyone at home! If they were armed, they’d go to the streets!
And if I was a dictator, I’d want to disarm the people! Just like all the others’ disarmed people before they imposed their respective dictatorships.
That is when our demonstration, and I ask that Fernando and Moro sign the ordinance today…
(Fernando Alveredo, Minister of Defense)
Because I want to give a f*cking message to these *ssoles, on why I’m arming the people. Because I don’t want a dictatorship here! And it can’t be postponed anymore!
Alright? It can’t be postponed anymore!
Whoever doesn’t accept my ideals, Damares…
(Damares Alves, Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights)
Family, God, Brazil, guns, freedom of speech, free markets… Whoever doesn’t accept that, is in the wrong government.
(A message to his Ministers not stepping up due to not supporting such ideals)
Wait until 2022 Sir Avaro Dias? Wait for Alckmin? Wait for Haddad? or maybe Lula, right? And you can go and be happy with them.
In my government, you are wrong!
It’s to blow it wide, the gun question here! I want everyone armed!
Because an armed people will never be enslaved!
Jair Bolsonaro
President of Brazil
May 22, 2020
Brazil’s President Bolsonaro: “An armed people will never be enslaved!”
©2020 by Dean Weingarten
[I wonder if Brazil would be a good place to retire. Is Portuguese difficult to learn for an old guy who has only learned one language?—Joe]
If you want to live in places that get burned down by rioters while the police evacuate and the politicians in charge celebrate the pyromaniacs, then you should vote for the Democrats in November.
Dinesh D’Souza @DineshDSouza
Tweeted on May 29, 2020
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
I love that you guys are protesting and see how quick you did it. But I’m gonna tell you, to get the fuck what you really want, we’re going to have to change the fucking system. And to change the system, we have to fucking vote,” Jones said, reflecting on her role in the 1992 Los Angeles riots and expressed admiration for protesters. “You want to burn down buildings? Burn down this fucking Constitution. And we do that by fucking lifting our voice, by fucking voting… That’s how we really show them.
Leslie Jones
June 1, 2020
Leslie Jones: ‘Burn Down This F**king Constitution’
[As one commenter said,
Should we assume that the Thirteenth Amendment is included in that conflagration?
The honesty is almost refreshing. I appreciate her giving us such clarity.—Joe]
There are people claiming the riots are justified:
Apparently if you can’t get the change you want via peaceful means then riots and massive destruction of property, injuries, and death are part of the acceptable solution space.
If you happen to have someone make such a claim to you please ask them the nature and extent of the violence they would recommend for gun owners such that we can eliminate the oppressive laws we struggle with every day.
The Governor of Minnesota is a Democrat. The mayor of Minneapolis is a Democrat. The chief of police is a Democrat, hired by the Democrat mayor. Be consistent. Vote Democrat for more of what you are now seeing in Minneapolis.
Bastiats_Pen @BastiatsPen
Tweeted on May 29, 2020
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Roberta reported on how the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Force and the deputy mayor handled things last night such that there were no violent confrontations associated with the large protest:
The police and protestors marched the rest of the way to the Governors house intermingled. The protestors agreed to disperse afterward, and police walked with them back downtown to their cars.
No one got hurt. There were no riots in Indianapolis last night. There was no looting.
I read someplace else, I forget where, that research from the 1960s and 1970s on crowd control came up with a solution similar to what Roberta described which resulted in similar outcomes.
Nice. Very nice.
I would tell them, if you value your life, they probably shouldn’t do that in Polk County. Because the people of Polk County like guns, they have guns, I encourage them to own guns, and they’re going to be in their homes tonight with their guns loaded, and if you try to break into their homes to steal, to set fires, I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of the house with their guns. So, leave the community alone.
Grady Judd
Polk County Florida Sheriff
June 1, 2020
Peaceful protesters gather in Polk County; curfew in effect at 8 p.m.
[We live in interesting times.—Joe]
Via Red Dog: who references this blog post of mine.
Thank you Red Dog.
It may be that we have another very public example of reality being really, really difficult to understand.
We have probably 100s of thousands of people protesting, getting all worked up, killing police officers, and doing 100s of millions of dollars worth of property damage over the death of George Floyd.
From every thing I know about the event it should be considered an unlawful death and those responsible should be prosecuted. I talked to a former cop about it and he said, paraphrasing, the head and neck action, in addition to being totally unnecessary, was extremely strongly “discouraged” (forbidden) since at least 1994 when he first went through training. He is also of the opinion that the other cops should be charge with participating in the illegal death of Floyd as well. I have no reason to disagree with his analysis.
That said, the theme of probably 99.9% of the protests and public discussion is about racism. But is it? What evidence do we have that this cop is a racist thug? It could be that he does this crap with people he arrests regardless of their race. There are supposedly has many prior complaints against him. It’s entirely possible that he is an equal opportunity thug. It’s even possible he gives white suspects rougher treatment than non-whites.
I’m really looking forward to the cops public trial(s). I want to know what is in those prior complaints about his behavior. My bet is that describing him as an equal opportunity thug is more accurate than as a racist thug.
The racist theme met the preconceived beliefs of the vast majority of people and that theme spread across the country at almost the speed of light. It infected far more people, far faster, than any viral pandemic. And yet, it may well be nothing but a delusion. A deadly delusion of massive proportions and consequences, but still a delusion.
While the belief may be true, until we know for certain, the focus of the demands for reform should be on that which we have evidence for:
But that’s not my main point. My main point is that people believe things without evidence. Evidence is almost irrelevant to the beliefs of most people. And this tragic, almost for certain, illegal death is another example of why I believe rational thought is nothing but a thin veneer over the belief systems of the minority of the human population.
This will be interesting to see how it plays out:
Google was sued on Tuesday in a proposed class action accusing the internet search company of illegally invading the privacy of millions of users by pervasively tracking their internet use through browsers set in “private” mode.
The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion, accusing the Alphabet Inc unit of collecting information about what people view online and where they do their browsing, despite using what Google calls Incognito mode.
It’s really, really tough to be anything close to truly anonymous on the Internet these days. You can get close enough for all practice purposes but it takes a lot of effort and a certain amount of skill.
I think it should be much easier and that Google is a huge part of the problem in achieving anonymity just further confirms my opinion that they are evil (also here and here).
I hope the lawsuit is widely successful and is applied, as needed, to other Internet privacy violators.
