I feel sorry for the NYT. First Trump gets elected, now Castro’s gone. Their whole world is shattered. . .
Glenn Reynolds
November 26, 2016
GOOD RIDDANCE. HE WAS A BRUTAL DICTATOR, EVEN THOUGH HE REMAINED THE DARLING OF AMERICAN LEFTISTS.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Nearly half of men and one-third of women would, ideally, like to be practicing some form of non-monogamy. However, just 8% of men and 7% of women said they wanted to be in a completely open relationship. This means that most of the people who are into non-monogamy want there to be at least some rules or restrictions in place.
Dr. Justin J Lehmiller
October 31, 2016
Would Your Ideal Relationship Be Monogamous Or Open? 1,000 Americans Weigh In
[Isn’t that interesting?
Anonymous Conservative would say it’s validation of r/K theory in a nearly free resource environment.
The authors of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships would probably say the only surprise is that the percentage is so low.
Here is where it gets even more interesting:
Behavior doesn’t change much with age but openness with their partners does.
Fascinating.—Joe]
But his honesty is terrifying.
Neve Campbell
March 1, 2016
‘House Of Cards’ Star Neve Campbell Admits She’s ‘Terrified Of Donald Trump White House Victory’
[Via email from Jeff.
Well, to be fair, as a supporter of the political left I can see how something so unfamiliar to her could be frightening.—Joe]
He does not simply teach them to assume all firearms are loaded or to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Instead, he tells his students, “Assume the bullet is traveling down the barrel right now.”
Beth Alcazar
November 15, 2016
Treat Every Firearm as Though It’s Loaded…and a Bullet is Traveling Down the Barrel
[Via email from Paul Koning who said, “I thought the headline — and the explanation — makes an interesting point.”—Joe]
Since at least 1950, every single one of Europe’s public mass shootings has occurred in a place where general citizens are banned from carrying guns. In America, there have been only four exceptions to that rule.
John R. Lott
November 16, 2016
It’s already too late for gun control to work
[And what can we learn from this?—Joe]
Via the Huffington Post article What Does The NRA Want? (And What To Do About It):
Following the massacre of first graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre infamously said that the lesson to be learned was: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” That phrase perfectly captures a core premise of Trumpism: that the nation is neatly divided into “good guys” (who have been forgotten by the elites controlling our government) and “bad guys” (Muslims, undocumented immigrants and “the others” who have been allowed to threaten the safety and well-being of the “good guys”). LaPierre’s slogan likely will animate the entirety of the NRA’s Trump Administration agenda.
This is “a core premise of ‘Trumpism’”? Really? It’s implied the good guys are difficult to distinguish from the bad guys and the bad guys are based upon immigration status, religion, etc. But it is extremely clear from the context LaPierre identified the bad guy as the one murdering the children and their teachers. The good guys would have been anyone in a position to take a clean shot at the bad guy.
The rest of the article has similar distortions and half-truths. It is very skillfully worded so as to be almost true but extremely misleading so as to put gun owners and the NRA in a bad light. As I was reading the article I wondered, “Who is this person?”
It all made sense once I saw the author’s name. It is Half-Truth Henigan. I thought he had moved on. Oh, well…
One more interesting observation is that if Henigan thinks distinguishing good guys versus bad guys is difficult he must have a much different set of the people he associates with than I do. I suppose it makes sense since he is almost for certain a Democrat. And, after all, Democrats prison inmates outnumber inmates of all other political persuasion combined by a factor of two to one.
Via a tweet from Dana Loesch who said, “Classy people. This is why you lost.”
This is what they think of you.
Recent update on so-called “smart gun” regulations.
Upshot: it’s voluntary…. with an implied *for now attached. Leave it to the government to call for a way to make a perfectly reliable, simple, mechanical system, and apply a high-tech solution to a social problem that a) won’t fix the problem, b) discriminates against the poor, c) will make good systems less reliable, d) etc [insert all the usual litany of problems with this specific tech here]
President-elect Trump has better coverage than Verizon. Can you hear us now?
Kambree Kawahine Koa
Tweeted on November 9, 2016
[Via email from Paul Koning.
The way the cell phone providers measure coverage is in terms of “pops” (the population of people who live where they have cell phone service from that carrier). So, technically, if you are measuring the “pops” in the red (Trump carried counties) the fact that large population centers did not vote for Trump probably means Verizon “pops” exceed Trump “pops”. But still it is a message the Democrat party heard. I’m not sure they understood it correctly and I’m not sure they will figure it out and respond appropriately, but they certainly did hear it.—Joe]
@towerclimber37 @NRA You mean learning how to distort it so we can become ammosexuals with paranoia issues and erectile problems?
HAM @trollbouncer
Tweeted on February 13, 2016
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via a tweet from Papa Guns @towercliber37.
This was in response to Papa Guns tweeting, “…the truth is that kids like you have a long way to go to learn about the constitution.”—Joe]
The Art of Trolling. The dude’s a master.
You may have heard that VP-elect Pence went to watch Hamilton. Now, there are a whole bunch of ironies about the show, a virtual cultural-appropriation-fest, but save that for another time. For whatever reason Pence and his wife went to see it. They were booed, there were a lot of pauses, and at the end of it the cast addressed the VP-elect directly.
Trump fired off a tweet saying he was harassed . He then demanded the theater must be a safe space and they must apologize! The left replied saying that he was being thin-skinned, and he should suck it up. They were trolled. They just made his argument for him, that the whole “safe space” thing is a total crock. They bring attention to it. It’ll make people talk about it, and possibly reconsider the whole thing. Talk about a master troller at work.
The next few years will be very interesting.
(edited and added: We should all know that theaters have not been a “safe space” for at least 151 years)
America has not seen so many butthurt white people since the Republican Party forced the Democrats to free their slaves.
Ulick Varange @ParacleteFTW
Tweeted on November 16, 2016
[There are many variations of this but I liked this one the best and Varange was the first I found to have said it this way.—Joe]
“I got a gun, three fifty seven, ain’t afraid to teach a lesson. Son, I don’t want to use my weapon but if I need a one I got a gun.”
By Amanda McCarthy.
Nice. Very nice.
Via Justin J Lehmiller.
Thought provoking:
The too long didn’t listen version: Free markets are best.
I used to know a woman who once had a job as an intern with NATO doing intelligence work into human trafficking. She insisted prostitution should remain illegal because it was too difficult to determine if woman in a brothel were there by choice or under threat of violence. This didn’t seem quite like the proper solution to me but I didn’t have a good response. Now I do.
Watch the video and learn for yourself.
If the streets had filled with — often rioting — protesters denouncing Obama’s legitimacy right after the election in 2008, he wouldn’t have said a thing. And if George W. Bush had refused to denounce them, the press wouldn’t have soft-pedaled it at all. . .
But I’m sure Trump’s fine with it, as it’s just helping build his mandate. If they keep this up for four years, he’ll be re-elected in a landslide.
Glenn Reynolds
November 18, 2016
THE HILL: Obama won’t call off anti-Trump protesters.
[What the protesters don’t get is that Trump won, in part, because of their childish behavior. The left is mostly composed of condescending, insulting, hypersensitive, bullies. Trump was willing to stand up to them and put them in their place. Trump may be a bit of a bully himself, but he didn’t put up with the leftist crap and that was refreshing to a lot of people. If the leftist bullies are still whining when the next election comes around Trump can use the same tactics to win again.
The political currency of the left is violence and the threat of violence. It’s in their nature and it’s long past time for the good people of this country to put them in their proper place.—Joe]
By Marty Robbins. Classic western tune.
While I’ve never considered myself much of a right winger, being more of a libertarian bent, I have found myself increasingly pushed and marginalized by the “enlightened and progressive” amongst you into the same camp with all sorts of deplorables, regardless of where they lived and what they called themselves. Nationalists, alt righters, anarchists, constitutionalists and so on and so forth all made for strange bedfellows but an effective team. Working on the premise that the enemy of my enemy is my friend we have all found common ground. We have you to thank for that. By pushing, badgering, harassing, marginalizing and insulting us on a regular basis you created something new. And it crushed you at the ballot box.
There were other factors as well. The pesky internet for example. It allowed those of us who could not vote to contribute in other ways. Through memes, leaks and general trolling we cheered and supported our freedom loving brothers and sisters in your country and encouraged them to have heart and stay the course. Of course, our part was small, minisucle really, compared to what our American brothers and sisters had to endure, but you get the picture.
Elections, especially ones mired in icky things like ideology and principle, now cross national boundaries. It sucks I know, but a lack of imagination on your part does not equal or represent a foul on ours. We did nothing illegal or immoral. We simply beat you because, well, we’re smarter than you are.
But not to worry. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to learn from your mistakes. You see, the battle that took place in your polling stations on the 8th of November was just that. A battle. We, the freedom loving peoples of the western world, well, we’re just getting warmed up. To quote the man: “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet“.
So retreat to your safe spaces, grab your adult colouring books and put on a happy face my special snow flakes because regardless of whoever/whatever you are and regardless of what nation it is you reside in, we, the deplorables, are coming for you.
Francis Marion
November 10, 2016
Sorry Snowflake But It’s Not Over…
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Filed under “why are they so violent, Episode number 54-A.”
A “professor” at Rutgers , Kevin Allred, tweeted “will the 2nd amendment still be cool when i buy a gun and start shooting random white people or no…?” He was reported, and carted off in an ambulance for a psych eval, which set off a tweetstorm that is hysterically un self-aware. Of course he’s the victim, of course it’s Trumps crackdown on free speech, etc….
How do they tie their shoes in the morning?
Just because someone knows most of the words doesn’t mean they can use them in a complete sentence that makes sense:
If a politician has no idea what they are talking about they have no business making law regarding that subject.
H/T Boyd K.
The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
– Gustave Le Bon (1841 – 1931)
A sad truth politicians, government functionaries, con men, the media, and psychopaths (but I repeat myself) depend on. As a teacher, I have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard “will this be on the test?” from “smart” students who do well in school but are destined to do poorly in life because they do not hunger to truth or reality, but diplomas and accolades. They are fundamentally lazy and incurious. They are confused enough they think knowledge and diplomas are the same thing. It’s the sort of person that believes the story ends when the Disney Princess gets married, and Prince Charming will always come back from the war (or tavern, or brothel, or…). Continue reading