Maggie's Farm

Image via House of Eratosthenes.

Euroland has been a slo-mo disaster.

After Brexit, Top EU bureaucrat wants a ‘European Government’

Good luck with that. The EU is becoming a backwater, living in the past. Sad.

Orban vs the EU - Hungary to Hold Referendum on Migrants in Fall

Hope you are on a boat today in a bathing suit with a fishin' pole. If not, my condolences. I feel sorry for you.

Independence Day Created Greatest Empire the World Will Ever Know: The Anglosphere.

So claims the WaPo. It made me laugh because this is America's #1 barbecue weekend and only quite peculiar people are not grilling meat.

A few thoughts. 

If cows and sheep and goats are killing the planet, what about all of the wild animals that roamed the globe before domestication?  Should we kill all the farting deer, caribou, bison, wild pigs and Wildebeests?

Why do they always talk about Red Meat?  What's so specially bad about it compared to pork or chicken? Not a thing, as far as I know.  That old beef about red meat's health badness has long been disproven.

And how bad can red meat be, given that the human body is made of it? Are the cannibals worried?

Anyway, it's all silliness.

The final debunking

I don't think the topic is very important, but it's quite a story of modern academia and academic politics.

Clinton Labor Secretary Warns Against July 4th ‘Americanism’

Would Robert Reich be directing that warning to all new immigrants, or to the children and grandchildren of immigrants, who left everything behind to come to this lovely place for freedom and opportunity?

300,000 More Migrants Headed from Africa to Europe. That doesn't include the million from the middle east.

European SUPERSTATE to be unveiled: EU nations 'to be morphed into one' post-Brexit

An ultimatum instead of more referendums. This will not go over well with the common folk.

Angela Merkel warns other countries should be stopped from leaving 

At The Atlantic, the case that the people should not have had a referendum because the issues are too complex for regular people. Funny, but that's the attitude of the EU towards the peasants on everything.Similar enough to the attitude of the US Feds towards the states.

German President Responds to Brexit Vote: The Elites are Not the Problem, the People Are the Problem

So get new people. Oh, they did: Muslims who hate them.

And one more on the same theme:  The EU-Progressive Paradigm Is Falling Apart - The rise of populist and patriotic passion:

... the transnationalists created yet another institution that would subordinate the nations of Europe to its control, on the debatable assumption that the carnage of two world wars was wrought by national particularism. They confused genuine patriotism and love of one’s own way of living, with the grotesque political religions of fascism and Nazism, both as much avatars of illiberal tribalism as nationalism grown toxic. Thus was born the supranational EU, which began modestly in 1958 with the European Economic Community, and then relentlessly expanded over the years into today’s intrusive, unaccountable bureaucracy of anonymous technocrats that has concentrated power in Brussels at the expense of national sovereignty.

Similarly, in the US the progressives of the early 20th century began transforming the American Republic based on similar assumptions. They believe that economic, social, and technological progress rendered the Constitution––particularly its separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalist protections of the sovereignty of the states––an anachronism. “The age of enlightened administration had come,” F.D.R. proclaimed, and he set about creating the federal bureaus and agencies that have over the years expanded in scope and power, and increasingly encroached on the rights and autonomy of the states, civil society, and individuals.

He is always wonderful, but I am convinced anyway.  Watch it for the pleasure of seeing a quick-witted fellow at work.

Related, the EU is governance by despotic midgets.  Government by enlightened elites without the input of the peasants.

Tomorrow is your first chance in recent history to repel German tyranny without needing an army to do it.  Vote for independence, sovereignty, self-determination: Vote "Leave"!

It's your last chance. You can always rejoin if you want to.

Don't try this if you live in Euroland. You could be prosecuted, shot, or bombed. God bless America where at least you can't be prosecuted.

Clemson let white students be tarred and feathered for hate-crime they knew was hoax

Agit-prop. Without faux hate, there would be very little for the anti-hate haters to do.

Stokes: Why millions of Americans — including me — own the AR-15

He does a good job explaining the appeal of the AR-15 - its versatility. Or, as some say, it's not a gun - it's a gadget.

I think that the press and most of the politicians do not know the difference between an AR-15 and an AK-47. More likely, they don't care because incremental gun-grabbing is one of their missions. Thus any new regulation is a step towards the goal of citizen disarmament.

In case you think Second Amendment is standing in the way of banning semiautomatic weapons...

Apparently CT can outlaw some semiautomatic firearms. I have semi-automatic shotguns which I am certain will not fall under regulations - yet. The magazine is internal, so there is no visible clip. To comply with game laws, I have plugs in them to limit me to 3 cartridges (or bullets, as we term them).

Besides being black and ugly, I do not get the functional appeal of the highly-popular AR-15. It is not particularly powerful or useful at long distances. I think it is good fun at the range or close-in game hunting but there are better firearms for that. There is no accounting for taste, and the best thing to do is to pick a firearm for your use and to get good with it.

I think it might be the clips that the grabbers are using, in this case.

Knives are the tool used in 5 times more killings in the US than guns.

Admittedly, though, a firearm can kill more people at a time, making for scary headlines. Omitting 9-11 from the stats, however, the number of mass murders in the US has been on a multi-decade decline.

There is an argument that there are too many knives guns in the US. Admittedly, there are too many illegal handguns in the US. You can buy an illegal handgun on the right ghetto street corner in any American city in 15 minutes if you have the cash. Illegally-obtained handguns are the firearm of choice for criminals.

It is a very rare bad guy who uses a long gun. Too hard to conceal. Mass murderers sometimes prefer long guns because they are more accurate than handguns.

With the exception of Switzerland where firearm ownership is close to required by law, most governments want their citizens disarmed. Disarmed citizens are more helpless citizens. Most of these governments want their police and government agencies well-armed. Why? Because bad guys have firearms even in disarmed places. New Flash: bad guys ignore laws. Police have weapons because bad guys have them, illegally. They were not purchased in gun shops.

You can't keep guns away from bad guys and the occasional lunatic. Impossible. Thus governments try to limit guns going to good guys. Pointless, but good politics in some places.

Essentially all legal firearm sales in the US are for sport and recreation, self-defense, and for collectors. The extremely rare violent exceptions are Muslims and the mentally disturbed. Firearms are as American as apple pie, and as common. The average American is quite comfortable with a firearm. Many if not most American boys and girls learn to use them. They all should. My parents taught us. 

The 2nd amendment is not there because of militias so much as because weapons were forbidden for the common man in England. Only aristocrats could own their own swords and firearms. Same as in the UK now.

If by some miracle firearms could be kept from jihadists in the US, they would simply make bombs.

"Assault-looking" rifles? These are just light-weight rifles that look mean. Best-selling rifle in the US today. True assault weapons are illegal in the US except for government agents and the military. Even IRS agents have an arsenal of assault weapons. Isn't that nice?

I think all of the politicizing of the Orlando jihadist's firearms is virtue posing and grandstanding. BTW, I am in favor of vetting all gun buyers, all knife-buyers, and all immigrants from anywhere. Did you know that it is easier for an illegal immigrant in California to stay and to get government freebies than it is to legally-import a hunting dog from England?

I also think anyone using violence or threat of violence whether with firearm, knife, baseball bat, or anything else in commitment of a crime deserves execution. Not tolerable in civilization.

Photo:  Good self-defense handgun, the Taurus Judge which fires .45 and .410 shotshells. Popular with judges. With a .45, it takes training to hit anything, but the .410 makes it easy. Best home defense firearm? A pump 12 ga.: Just the sound of the pump action will send any bad guy running for the hills unless they are crazed rural meth-heads. Home defense is like buying insurance. You hope you never need it.

Related:  From Howard Stern for the 2nd Amendment, asking people whether they wish to be sheep or men

And from David French: The Bizarro Morality of America’s Gun-Control Debate