Wednesday, January 9. 2013
 That's the Lefty mantra this week, re firearms. So let's ban cars, which are far more deadly. Or urban gangs and urban drug gangs, who do, by far, most of the killing in the US with illegally-possessed handguns.
Tatler:
If it only saves one life, maybe we shouldn’t ban handguns because one of them was used Monday night in Ohio to save two lives and may help take a robber off the streets.
Mind you, I am entirely in favor of banning firearms, or any other weapons including baseball bats, from violent criminals and the criminally insane. However, that is already the law. Crims ignore laws, obviously, worldwide. Criminalizing the law-abiding seems one more example of A nation formed by geniuses and run by idiots.
A rational government would want the law-abiding armed, and the crims disarmed. I happen to believe that our government wants me disarmed. Me, who have been burglarized four times, held up at gunpoint once, threatened with death once, have had an armed home invader running through the area recently, and have never harmed anybody who did not deserve it - and never with a firearm but only with words.
When government and police give up guns, and government officials and celebrities and newspaper offices give up their firearm protection, and security guards begin carrying squirtguns, and the crims give up their guns and we establish the Peaceable Kingdom where the lion lies down with the lamb, then we can talk.
Until then, Maggie's HQ is defended with legal citizen arms just as Mayor Bloomberg and the President are. That's how honest country folk think, who cannot afford security guards and have no gendarmes for many miles. In the country, one must be one's own gendarme. That's the American way. I grew up with guns around. Just tools, like all the others. We kept a .22 revolver in the kitchen drawer with the pliers and screwdrivers. My Mom shot a roaming Copperhead with it one time, when a little one was outdoors in a basinette.
Eve should have been armed.
Tuesday, January 8. 2013
 Says Al Gore's staff. Slow learners, I guess.
From Sultan's scathingly entertaining Hollow Men:
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.
I'm not sure what is driving this movement. Unions, perhaps?
My kids have all had various internships, paid and unpaid, some very well-paid. Internships are an opportunity for the student and, in most cases, a bit of a hassle for the person offering them.
If a person thinks it worth their while to take an unpaid internship, why not? If they were paid, they might not be offered at all.
Monday, January 7. 2013
Asness:
The only way to finance a big European-style state is to have it paid for by massive taxation of everyone, mostly the middle class. Right now, we are avoiding honest debate on this fact.
There will be large tax increases on the middle class. There is no getting around it, if people want so many government benefits. Those Obamacare taxes are just the beginning. With that will come ever-slowing growth of jobs and income.
The downward creep of regular tax increases has already begin (h/t Insty): The Stealth Tax Hike -- Why the New $450,000 Income Threshold Is a Political Fiction.
I remain confused about why Europe seems like a good role model for a vigorous economy with opportunity for all.
Now Democrats Aim for a Trillion in New Taxes. It's never enough.
Sunday, January 6. 2013
 Pic: We ain't taking sides, because, for one thing, we have Alabama relatives. For another, we believe that rooting for teams is rooting for laundry - in Seinfeld's immortal words. I just liked this photo. But what the heck, it's all about money and fun and athletic talent, which are all good things. But "Brian Kelly" - sheesh. Irish enuf? Are you kidding me?
Notre Dame vs. Alabama: College Football's Epic Rivalry
Lou Holtz, the man who led the Irish to their last national title, on the health of college football amid big money, big injuries and big scandals.
Our Culture, What's Left Of It: Interview with Theodore Dalrymple
Subway Deaths Haunt Those at Trains’ Controls
Wisdom from Psychopaths? A scientist enters a high-security psychiatric hospital to extract tips and advice from a crowd without a conscience
10 Things Happy People Do Differently (h/t Insty)
Rent a Scottish Castle (or country house)
Frosties and Coco Pops today. But don’t be fooled into thinking it will end there.
The Brits: 60,000 patients put on death pathway without being told but minister still says controversial end-of-life plan is 'fantastic'
Are We All Europeans Now? We need to be honest about the size and scope of our government.
The Episcopal Church: Nothing Like Consistency (With Comedy Video Bonus)
Behind the December jobs report -- why America's unemployment rate remains so high
Do You Believe This Garbage?… Obama Resorts to Outright Lies in Weekly Address
How the world's most prominent environmentalist learned to stop worrying and love Big Oil.
Here Comes The Student Loan Bailout
Your Government Forced You to Place a Cancer Menace In Your Home
Belly up to the ATM, boys — drinks are on the taxpayers.
I’m wondering if Elizabeth will advocate for the Times to get rid of their own armed guards?
Do women want the toughest fighting jobs?
Abbas Salutes Hitler-Supporting Mufti, Terrorists in Anniversary Address
CAIR chief claims Muslims discovered America first
Overheated rhetoric on Israeli settlements
Image below via Moonbattery
Saturday, January 5. 2013
 Report: Drowsy driving is dangerous -- and common
How To Cook Steaks On Your Stovetop That Taste Better Than in a Fancy Restaurant
That's how I do ribeyes - crusty on the outside, rare inside. A grill does not do justice to good Costco ribeyes. One per person, please. A real treat.
Construction is complete on behemoth airship; first flight planned
Crime in England to Post on Facebook That “All Soldiers Should DIE & Go To HELL!”
When did the Brits give up on free speech?
We’re Saved! Concord Bans Planet Killing Water Bottles
Internet emissions are terrible for the planet
I Support President Obama’s Plan for Making Schools Safer
2012: The Year in PC
The Guardian offers some moral support for pedophilia
Heck, Bonobos do it all the time. We're just monkeys, right?
Obama Supporters Hit Hardest in Latest Jobs Report – Blacks, Hispanics and Young Adults Continue to Suffer
New Hampshire Legislator: We Need to 'Restrict Freedoms' of Conservatives
New York Green Weenies Almost Out of Gas
Cruz Sworn In As Texas’ First Hispanic US Senator, Will Introduce Bill To Repeal ‘Obamacare’
Emmett Tyrrell: Liberals will learn that it's still about the economy
And now the “rich” will pay…
Why Obamacare's Health Care Cost Controls Won't Work - Our sad, failed history of technocratic cost controls.
Schumer: Dems Won’t Negotiate With GOP On Debt Ceiling
Illinois Tax Hikes, Two Years Later: A Failure - The Land of Lincoln is still aflame.
CAIR demands media drop term “Islamist”
An Appeal for Dictatorship Comes Out of the Closet at the New York Times
It's termed "Liberal fascism." They are certain that they are wiser than us humble, feckless, ignorant citizens masses who can barely tie our own shoes. Harry Reid?!?!?
Sultan:
We live in a world that has lost touch with the very idea of hard choices. That even in the richest and most prosperous country in the world, you still have to choose one or the other. That you can't have you cake and eat it too. But as the hard edges of reason have blurred into the haze of wishful thinking, the idea of mutually incompatible choices also fades away. Soon there are no choices, only options.
India and the United States: How Individuals and Corporations Have Driven Indo-U.S. Relations
Ancient manuscripts indicate Jews thrived in Afghanistan a thousand years ago
The Israelis should take it over. In five years, it would be the tech center of the world.
Al-Jazeera’s “Alternative Viewpoint” in Qatar’s Paradise
Friday, January 4. 2013
 The Homeschool Diaries
A free ad for Angie's List. We use it for almost everything these days. It's a great biz concept.
Crony Capitalist Blowout - A tax increase for everyone but the favored wealthy few.
McFortress - An antigun newspaper avails itself of the Second Amendment.
Former Democratic NYC Mayoral Candidate Equates Gun Owners to Child Molesters
FBI: More People Killed with Hammers, Clubs Each Year than Rifles
$822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway
So What's Next, Mr. President? Nearly every decision made during Obama's presidency has been conducted under the canopy of catastrophe.
Krauthammer: Return of the Real Obama - The president is dedicated to the expansion of the welfare state:
Now he’s won. The old Obama is back. He must not be underestimated. He has deftly leveraged his class-war-themed election victory (a) to secure a source of funding (albeit still small) for the bloated welfare state, (b) to carry out an admirably candid bit of income redistribution, and (c) to fracture the one remaining institutional obstacle to the rest of his ideological agenda.
Not bad for two months’ work.
Gloom update: America: Doomed by Scarcity, Doomed by Plenty, Doomed, Doomed!
BBB's charity ratings, seal of approval under fire
Another Pigford government fraud?
Thursday, January 3. 2013
Al Gore may not have invented the internet or Global Warming, but his name will be forever associated with both. He certainly found ways to profit from these themes.
Now he's found a way to profit from TV, which he never claimed to invent, but hoped to 're-invent' with his Current TV network. An unwatched network airing questionable programming, pursuing a bizarre agenda that was mildly anti-American to most of us. Well, now he's out of the TV business and turning the reins over to another crowd of potentially anti-American broadcasters.
I can see the conspiracy theorists lining up behind this one.
If Al-Jazeera somehow turns the U.S. into a Muslim nation, will Al Gore take credit for being the founding father of Islamic U.S.A.?
Wednesday, January 2. 2013
Tuesday, January 1. 2013
I am bird-hunting today with Gwynnie, a real dog, and some friends. 20 ga., not binoculars. Hope our readers have a fine and jolly day too. I am in fine fettle, having only indulged in one beer last night, and early to bed. With a little luck, some pheasants for a late dinner tonight and a little vino.
 US on Pace for Slowest Decade of Population Growth Since 1930s
Mead: Why did God choose the Jews?
Sentimentalizing Serial Murder - A recent book exemplifies the erosion of moral judgment in Britain.
Public Funding for Stadiums Jumps the Shark in MiamiTop 10 Food Policy Success Stories of 2012 - This year had its share of good news for supporters of food freedom. Two interesting infographics were published recently that make it so easy to see the decline of the West, even a caveman can do it.Are you ready? ObamaCare: Pain 2.0 Health costs on top of tax hikes Health care law may mean less hiring in 2013Krauthammer: Obama showed´incredible arrogance´ in´astonishing´ press conference
Monday, December 31. 2012
Spectacular photo captures moment great white is gobbled by an EVEN BIGGER shark as it's hauled into fisherman's boat Modern Science Writers Leave Science BehindObama's labor board bails out big unions againVisit Your Parents: It’s the Law
Sunday, December 30. 2012
So you won't be disappointed, this will not be so much a review of the movie Django Unchained as a review of many reviewers. I've read about twenty reviews after seeing the movie. Django is pure Tarantino, over-the-top vulgar and violent, funny at times, the photography excellent and the actors fulfilling their roles well. In short, Django Unchained is a terrific shitkicker.
It is an action-revenge film that takes place in the pre-Civil War South, which along the way grips the viewer with White-on-Black violence and degradation of the worst imagination or fact and Black-on-Black violence (the Mandingo fighting a historical fraud, according to experts) and intra-Black slavery-facilitating discrimination and repression.
Most reviewers and audience polled give the film a high rating at review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. They just take it as Tarentino's outrageous brand of entertainment. Probably most viewers knew that going in to the theater.
Some reviewers, Black and White, criticize the ahistorical emphases within the film or the depiction of some Blacks (I don't recall any of these reviews reflecting similarly about the Whites), or wonder whether the film is a useful ideological guide to today's Blacks. They are entitled to their points of view, and their excesses can be forgiven for having to find enough words to fill their column. Still, most manage to lesser or greater extent applaud the film's execution even if disturbed by its supposed meanings.
Instead, don't look for meanings, or imagine them. Just enjoy a pure Tarantino shitkicker, with Shaft melded with Clint Eastwood and upping the gunplay, and every bad guy blown to spectacular smithereens.
Saturday, December 29. 2012
 Food info: Eating Out in Italy
Prayer and The Sadness of NHH Christmas
Sudden Death of Show Pony Clouds Image of Elite Pursuit
Clemson student's turtle project takes dark twist
Green wind:
Paul Driessen reported in the Washington Times that ‘the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that wind turbines kill 440,000 bald and golden eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, cranes, egrets, geese, and other birds every year in the U.S., along with countless insect-eating bats.’ The actual numbers are probably far higher.
Is it just me, or does Kwanzaa seem to come earlier and earlier each year?
It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglika," which he based on the philosophy of "Mein Kampf" -- and clueless public school teachers began celebrating the made-up, racist holiday.
The NYT is worried that the energy boom in eastern Montana has created too many high-paying jobs for Americans.
Why not let taxes rise on the middle class?
The other, other cliff: With no farm bill, milk prices set to soar
Hobby Lobby Says It Will Defy Obama’s HHS Mandate
Ring in the New Year with your New Healthcare Taxes
Steyn: Laws Are for Little People:
...in today’s America there are laws against everything, and any one of us at any time is unknowingly in breach of dozens of them.
Volokh: So What Are We Going to Do About It?
I've previously noted that Something, perpetually, Must Be Done
Guns and The New Paternalism
"Gregory had no intent to commit a crime; he was committing journalism instead."
Hundreds of Ohio school workers want to carry guns
Cornel West: 'No Tears' for 'Vanilla' Sandy Hook
Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers
CAIR Teams up With Banned Islamist in Mohammed Movie
Friday, December 28. 2012
Thursday, December 27. 2012
In case you're just returning home from a delightful Christmas vacation on the Moon, perhaps the most reprehensible MSM interview in recent years took place a few days ago when CNN's loathsome Piers Morgan repeatedly vilified Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, on prime time TV.
Pratt: Your [Great Britain] violent crime rate is higher than ours as is the violent crime rate in Australia. America is not the Wild West that you are depicting. We only have the problem in our cities, and unhappily, in our schools where people like you have been able to get laws put on the books that keep people from being able to defend themselves. I honestly don't understand why you would rather have people be victims of a crime than be able to defend themselves. It's incomprehensible.
Morgan: You're an unbelievably stupid man, aren't you?
...
Pratt: The Second Amendment means what it says, and meanwhile, you want to continue laws against self-defense. Laws that prohibit self-defense. Laws that prohibit teachers and other faculty, other members of the administration in schools from being able to defend themselves if they have a concealed carry permit. The laws prohibit them right now. We have been lobbying against those laws since they were put on. We will continue to do so, pointing out that this is where the problem is. And for you to support them means that you're really blind to the role that that plays in enabling murderers to operate with impunity.
Morgan: Yes, I know -- I know why sales of these weapons have been soaring in the last few days. It's down to idiots like you.
It should come as no surprise that certain people didn't especially take to this.
Thousands Sign Petition to Deport Piers Morgan
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for British CNN host Piers Morgan to be deported from the U.S. over his gun control views.
Make that 'outright attack on the Second Amendment', to be precise.
More fun and games below the fold, including a link to the petition. We're currently at the 82K mark.
Forward!
Continue reading "Going for the big 100K"
Wednesday, December 26. 2012
Those of us who served in Vietnam have fond memories of the traveling cover bands, usually very good, and their female dancers and singers, also very good and sexy. I saw a quote earlier that although we are now old, at least we got to see the great music groups. I'd include these show people who brought fun into our horny lives in Vietnam.
Cinammon Stillwell is an accomplished reporter. Her mother made this documentary about the entertainers who visited us wherever we were in Vietnam. It is one of a kind, something that to my knowledge has not been documented before. The film does not have an embed, so you have to go to this site to watch it. I know that us Vietnam vets will, and I think others out there will enjoy it and learn something different than many misconceptions.
Just for the heck of it, here's one of my blurry (I should say beery) photos in the 1st MarDiv HQs E-Club from back then:
 We always say that "freedom is messy" and that "Freedom is not for sissies." From Sultan's A Perfect Prison:
Bloomberg is a living model of the glass half-full theory of human behavior. This is after all a man who banned large sodas, and if you can't trust people to have large sodas, then you can't trust them to have cold medicines, let alone guns. Where does it end? It ends the same place - it ends in a prison. Nowhere. If you believe that people are basically bad, then every problem you identify is met with another control measure until you control absolutely everything.
(Hizzoner, of course, has been surrounded by armed men since he got rich on Wall St, long before becoming Mayor. Must be nice to afford armed bodyguards and armed drivers of your Lincoln Town Car while you sip single malt Scotch in the back with your latest squeeze while denouncing legal gun owners.)
The eternal problem with widespread freedom from state control is that some small minority of people can't or won't handle freedom, personal independence, self-control. For whatever reason, they do not buy into our social contract or are unable to fulfill it. Perhaps they never even heard of it, never were informed that a person makes a deal to be a citizen here and that it is a historically-unique privilege, responsibility, and challenge. How come nobody told them that life in America is supposed to be difficult and risky, but filled with opportunity? It's not about safety and comfort and was never meant to be based on anything but virtue and freedom. Our streets are not paved with gold, but with blood, sweat, and tears.
These failures of a minority of bad apples to get with the program invite the state to step in in an effort to provide controls and supports externally. Thus we all lose a bit of freedom each time some jerk, idiot, sociopath, addict, or lunatic abrogates his American dignity and fails at running his own life in the manner of an honest, free, law-abiding and upstanding citizen. It's a shame - and wrong - that the least moral and worse-behaving of our population should have the power to deprive freedoms from the vast majority of decent citizens who aim to construct honorable, dignified, and independent lives by following their consciences or God's will as best they can.
Go ahead and ask me why I might want a 30-clip magazine, or a Big Gulp Coke. Well, I don't really want those things, but I don't want them forbidden me. I have a handgun carry permit, but I don't walk around armed all the time. Rarely, in fact. I might as well ask why you need a car that goes 110 mph, when car deaths in the US are far higher than gun deaths (32,000, vs 600 deaths by rifle - half of them suicides and others accidents).
(For other stats: Swimming pool drownings in the US: Approx. 3000 per year, mostly young kids. Backyard pools frighten me far more than guns do. I hate pools and I like guns... Also, firearm murders with illegal handguns thus far in the gun-banning village of Chicago, 2012: 470.)
Leftist control freaks often try to find signs of "market failure" to justify government intrusion into the free and voluntary exchange of goods and services. Similarly, they seek signs of "freedom failure" with the same goals. It's about power of the elites over us little people - always for our own good, of course, because we are "the masses." However, there are no "masses" in America and there is no aristocracy of any sort, political or otherwise.
Isn't obesity a "freedom failure"? Of course it is. North Korea has no such problem because they enforce "food control." So my final thought on this topic tonight: Why does the government allow Medicare-aged people to be overweight? 500,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease per year. Surely some controls are called for to address this crisis of excess freedom which results in so much disability and death, and burdens everyone else with their medical bills. Easy for the government to fix that: just offer to pay for medical care based on your BMI. If it's over 27, no free doctors. They are heading that way in the UK already. My view is that if you want to be heavy, do so and enjoy it. Not on my nickel, though. My freedom to life and property should trump all else because it is a gift from God.
Image is via Theo
I presume you heard the tragic story of how a large golden eagle almost carried away a young child and devoured it. Controversy immediately followed, of course, as the usual two sides faced off against each other. On one side was PETA, echoing my own personal belief that eagles have the right to eat, too.
On the other side are people who apparently want to see eagles starve to death. I'm honestly not sure why these virulent animal haters are even given a say in the matter, but such is the nature of a modern society that allows the voices of all to be heard.
The seizure of the child was caught on smartphone. I think it should be obvious that this is not for the squeamish. Management strongly urges all liberals and young children to immediately leave the room.
Luckily, there's not a lot of blood.
I think it's safe to say the eagle learned a valuable lesson that day in nutritional management.
But for an inside look into this horrific nightmare, let's go to the video:
I thought it amusing that both sides of the interview said something quite naive. "Did it surprise you that everybody thought it was real?" No, you mental midget, six people spent over 300 hours on it so it would look fake!But one of the guy's comments was even more innocent. "We never thought people would analyze it frame-by-frame." Guys, I was analyzing it frame-by-frame the first time I watched it expecting it to be fake! Not in the exact sense he means, but as an acknowledged video guru, I know what to look for. I bought the whole thing right up to the close-up of the afternoon snack kid and saw how big he was. My next thought was, "That snack sure looks big for a squirrel!"
I suppose it was also a point of naivete when the teacher set the grade of 'A' at a mere 100,000 views. When something goes viral these days, it's almost always in the millions.
But huge kudos for an outstanding fake-out.
Kids these days, huh?
Among the more irritating manifestations of political correctness, at least to this historian, is the attempt to replace the terms AD and BC with CE and BCE.
Tom Brewton's new book: The Liberal Jihad: The Hundred Year War Against The Constitution
How the Welfare State Traps the Poor in Dependency, the British Version
Time for Some Common-Sense Publishing Controls - What would Second Amendment bloviators say if we applied their logic to the First Amendment?
Prof. Richard Parncutt: Death Penalty for Global Warming Deniers?
Prince Harry in Taliban 'kill' mission
Driscoll: Two CNNs In One
I nominate Ann Althouse for the Light of Reason Award.
Douthat: Gun debate is emblematic of our dysfunctional politics
Glenn Reynolds is still awaiting answers from gun-control advocates Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg about the guns used by their security details in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.
CHANGE: In 2012, Generation Y voted to impoverish themselves
With full implementation of Obamacare, the bureaucratic cost will rise to ≈50%.
Gun-Control Today; Fat-Control Tomorrow?
Merry Christmas: a (partial) list of Obamacare taxes, fees
The Leftist delusion of a world without danger
Fathers disappear from households across America-Big increase in single mothers
Tenth most popular request for kids' Christmas gift: a 'dad'
For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall
With Election Over, Americans Find They Were Duped By Democrats And Obama
Bill Whittle: The Obama Administration Is Deliberately Attempting to Destroy This Economy
Steyn: Tapper’s promotion to CNN a lesson for the ‘J-school zombies’ in the WH press corps
JFK Conspiracy Theorists Seek Inclusion in Ceremony
California’s Largest Corporation is Headed for the Exit
Timbuktu: When the Saints Go Marching In
Big Red One, Second Brigade to Africa
Nigeria: Muslims murder six Christians at Christmas service
The Waqf is continuing to destroy Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount in a direct violation of a court ruling, new report finds.
Christmas in Indonesia: Savage Muslim mob pelts Christian worshippers with rotten eggs, bags of urine and dung
Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East
Postcard from Myanmar, the world Obama left behind after visit
|
I Call Them 'Bat-Chomping, Bird-Slicing Eco Crucifixes' Because 
Between the woods and frozen lake, on Tuesday
When 
How To Be an Overachiever
This morning's art photo stolen from