We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Harvard is looking for a woman to bear a Neanderthal child. She might need broad hips. They would probably gain plenty of applicants if the kid were guaranteed admission on a multicultural basis. Might be a threat as a linebacker on the Crimson team too or, given the brain size, a threat on the Chess Team.
I was disappointed that the post the other day about human migration excluded our Neanderthal brethren. They were made in God's image too, were they not?
Global cooling is a real threat for mankind's global future, obviously. One advantage of bringing back our Neanderthal brothers and sisters is that they know how to hunt the coming influx of Wooly Mammoths, as Steyn reminded us today on the radio. At some point, in the Northeast, the dang Mammoths will become pests, rooting around in our Rhododendrons in the snow along with the Polar Bears and those annoying and smelly Musk Oxen.
Unless you are some sort of immature free spirit like Elizabeth Wurtzel (with a guardian angel) who meanders through life aimlessly, you will have goals and will plot a course to attempt to reach them in the endless effort to feel content or satisfied, or at least to survive independently. Odds are that we will not reach the goals, but we give it our best shot. Always have a Plan B and a Plan C.
It remains a lighthouse on the sea of life: How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's the first book in my syllabus of my course Life 101, A Sunday Series this semester at Maggie's College. It's good to learn how to connect with people, but it is not automatic for most of us.
More of the syllabus later. It's a one-semester seminar course, one book per week is all - 15 books. It's not for credit because people are supposed to know these basics of life already, but many bright people never learned them because we got the mistaken impression that we were just wonderful without even trying. Including me. We aren't wonderful.
As Dr. Bliss often says, the life you desire must be constructed deliberately, thoughfully, while always being alert to opportunities that arise. Opportunities do arise if we just "Suit up and show up."
Readers know my views. I am in favor of grabbing the firearms of violent criminals and loonies. Start with the violent crims in gun-controlled Chicago, please. Bill Bratton knew how to do that in NYC.
Law-abiding people ought to have all the firearms they desire. Lethal hammers and knives, too. They do not need a reason. This is America.
The irony is that over the last 30 years, the U.S. homicide rate has declined by 50 percent. Gun murders as well. We’re living not through an epidemic of gun violence but through a historic decline.
For the convenience of readers, I collected two posters which you anti-gun nuts might wish to enlarge and display to advertise your virtue, if you have any cojones:
Here's an alternative yard sign for those who believe that evil exists, but know they are probably not it:
Let's face it: many of the effete urban elites are just plain askeered of guns. Afraid to touch one, but no problem driving their lethal Volvos to their vacation homes or hiding behind armed security guards or bodyguards in their hotels, banks, office buildings, private roads, and private schools. Guns go "boom," and make holes in things. However, I shoot with many of the non-effete elite, and they are all quite comfortable with guns. They run businesses, or are heirs to fortunes, or are doctors and lawyers. They are outdoor people, know how to protect themselves and their families, and they read books, too. These guys I know tend to have lots of firearms. Some gals too, but they tend to rely on guys for their protection.
I know it is not PC, but married women do, statistically, tend to rely on masculine guys for lots of things.
Firearms are not just for criminals. They are basic life tools, like hammers. Who wants to be killed by a scumbag, or eaten by a Cougar?
A rule of the modern age: all confident, reelected presidents trip up in the second term. LBJ was sunk by Vietnam. Reagan faced Iran-Contra. Bill Clinton had his comeuppance with Monica. George W. Bush was overwhelmed with the Iraqi insurgency and Katrina. And Obama will have his as well, obsequious media or not.
Supposedly fundamental partisan swings of an era usually prove transitory: LBJ’s landside led to Nixon four years later, whose landslide then led to Carter in 1980, whose supposed new politics of humility and apology led to Reagan, whose small government-paradigm shift nonetheless by 1992 gave us Clinton, whose “middle way” after only eight years gave us Bush, whose “compassionate conservative realignment” ended with Obama. And so on until the end of the republic.
"The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."
Winter is book season. What am I reading this week?
A classic: How To Run Any Organizationby Theodore Caplow. This splendid book is inexplicably out of print but used copies are readily available online for pennies. He covers everything from running a church choir to a medical practice to a corporate department.
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't. Nate Silver's new book.
...reflexive calls for Washington to pick up the tab underscore one of the greatest shifts of power in American politics during the last four decades: the transition from state and local autonomy to federal subsidy and control. This centralization of government was made possible largely by grants-in-aid, money provided by the federal government to state and local governments or private parties. They have become the third largest category in the federal budget, trailing only Social Security and national defense.
Marco Rubio: Riding to the Immigration Rescue - Marco Rubio, Florida's GOP senator, unveils his reform ideas to 'modernize' the system and put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.
Whether you agree with his ideas or not, he deserves credit for taking the initiative.
This is entertaining, but the alert and fast-talking Ben Shapiro makes one disputative error which might seem minor, but is not. His error was in answering the question "Why does anyone need an assault rifle?"
The right answer would be "I don't know what your definition of an assault rifle is, but nobody has to justify his wants in America. It's a free country. Piers, why do you need a polluting Town Car and driver to bring you to work?"
When white kids are killed, it's a catastrophe. When young black gangbangers die in Chicago, it's a non-story. The more I listen to all the hysteria, the more I want an AR-15 to play with even though I tend to prefer more aesthetic, old-school firearms, with wood in them. It appears that they are on back-order anyway.
Just had to repost the Hello Kitty AR-15. I would not mess with this pleasant lady:
Gore is a hollow man selling someone else's alarmist hollow earth theory so he can make it to the next stage of a career that has no meaning or purpose. Like most professional idealists, Al Gore cares for nothing except money. Having sold out so many times, his only idea is to keep doing it again and again.
The professional idealist is a hollow man. A soulless man who is tasked with convincing everyone of the existence of the thing that he does not have. The left has created an endless number of professional openings for such soulless men, for paid liars and faithless tricksters, who live only to convince the world that they believe just long enough for them to sell out one more time.
Nearly half a century ago, I dropped out of graduate school and enlisted as a foot soldier in America’s War on Poverty. Today, I’m still on the front lines, working to move people out of dependency and into employment. But with an important difference: I’ve become fed up with the useless policies that I once supported, and I’m trying to change the strategy of our bogged-down army...
Income inequality, if it is a problem (I do not see why it is) it is easy to fix. Just tax all income over $40,000 at 100% (except for politicians and bureaucrats).
Then confiscate all private assets over $100,000. (except for politicians and bureaucrats), because assets are really more important in life than income. Let's make it fair. Why focus on income? Some people have huge houses and apartments, and small families. The government can provide the manna. It worked great in China and the Soviet Union, so why not here?
Income and asset inequalities are fine with me. Money provides choices. Many people are highly motivated by such things, and they make good things happen. My job, for example, which pays me enough to afford ski trips to Whistler which, in turn, provides jobs for Canucks.
Wish you all could be here with us! I don't know why anybody would choose to be anywhere else in the world this week. Deep powder, dude, and a comfortable 20 degrees F at the base. Excellent restaurants, too. Good seafood. Carpe diem while you still have strong legs and before the government takes all of your money.
The drive up from Vancouver is stunningly scenic with the ocean and the fjords on your left and the mountains reaching up into the clouds on your right, worth the trip by itself.
It's not pretty. It's not glamorous. It's not ivory tower stuff. This is a backyard brawl now. This is Chicagoland. This is Obamaland. Either fight or go home.
It is no "assault weapon." "AR" means Armalite Rifle, not assault rifle. It's good for target shooting and for small game and critters like coyotes and groundhogs. Some consider it a lady's rifle, but might best be termed "gender-neutral." It is easily customizable. Very popular rifle. I think what most people understand the term "assault rifle" to imply is an automatic rifle, like a Tommy Gun or an AK-47.
The press seems usually not to to get that the vast majority of firearms are "semi-automatic." As we have mentioned here, a cowboy six-shooter is semi-automatic. As Rudy Guiliani said yesterday, a would-be killer can kill with anything no matter what it looks like. Killers in the US generally use 9 mm. handguns.
...what makes the AR-15 prime for these attacks? Simply the cosmetic make up of the gun - no less, no more. The AR-15 uses modern synthetic stocks, which make it look (to some) more menacing, but I am guessing you probably own a firearm right now that sports a non-wood stock. The AR-15 also has a detachable magazine, but I am also guessing you probably own at least one .22 rifle with the same feature. Some claim that the AR-15 can easily be converted to fully automatic. Well, it cannot... at least no more so than any other semi-auto firearm and doing so is illegal to boot. So it is easy to see that an AR-15, aside from sheer looks, is really no different than a standard semi-auto firearm you probably already own.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Harvard is looking for 
Says Al Gore's staff.
