I’d Like to See That Venn Diagram

So Iran threatened to name Western politicians who took bribes to create Obama’s nuclear deal.

It has been strongly suggested that the Justice Department bent over backwards to not pursue the Hillary Clinton over her private email server and possible pay-to-play abuse of her Secretary of State position because of the political fallout.

Now billionaire Jeffrey Epstein – a major Clinton and Dem contributor – has been arrested on child trafficking charges – and major political fallout is expected

You have to wonder what the Venn diagram of all those corrupt swamp-dwellers looks like, don’t you?

Quote of the Day – Charlie Martin Edition

From his PJMedia column We May Consent to be Governed but We Do Not Consent to be Ruled:

…a whole wing of American politics right now is dedicated to the proposition that all men are not created equal; that the clerisy, the lettered, those with Ivy-League degrees and the right family connections, form a distinct and natural aristocracy that should by rights not just govern, but rule.

I wish I had written that.  I’ve been trying to get a piece out for weeks now on this.

Whoops! They Did It Again!

2002: Venezuela passes its first version of the Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law

2012: Venezuela bans private gun owners Version 2.0

2014: Disarmament Law in Venezuela Yields Near Zero Results

Not exactly:

Since the Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law came into force in June 2013, authorities have seized 12,603 illegal weapons, while only 37 guns have been voluntarily handed in, reported El Nacional.

Which still isn’t much from an estimated pool of perhaps *six million*, but still…

2017: Socialist Venezuelan Leader Steps Up Arming of Supporters After Outlawing, Confiscating Civilian Guns

2019: Venezuela’s army death squads kill thousands

We were warned 100 years ago:

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: *”Stick to the Devil you know.”*

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: *”The Wages of Sin is Death.”*

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: *”If you don’t work you die.” *

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

The Gods of the Copybook Headings – Rudyard Kipling, 1919.

A Blast from the Past

From July 4, 2012, Walter Russell Mead’s re-imagining of the “woke” Declaration of (In)Dependence:

The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen Post-Colonial, Multi-Racial Societes of North America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to strengthen the political bands which have connected them with the Global Community, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the cooperative and deferential station which a careful review of the relevant peer reviewed literature suggests is most appropriate for long term win-win outcomes, a decent and rigorously equal respect to the opinions of woman- and man- and transkind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the ever deeper union.

We hold these views to be consistent with the evolving cultural consensus, that all humans are equally obliged to the performance of certain Duties, that among these are the Participation in the Struggle against Racism, Economic Injustice, Genetically Modified Organisms, Homophobia, Nationalism and the Excessive Emission of Carbon Dioxide and Other Greenhouse Gasses. That to secure the performance of these Duties, Governments are instituted among humans, deriving their just powers from the considered Opinions of the Educated Classes, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Duty of the Enlightened and Credentialed Guardians of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the Unquestioning Performance of their Duties by the Less Enlightened Members of the Public. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Change cannot come too quickly to suit the Convenience and the Predilections of an Enlightened Minority; Governments long established should be changed the Moment a Sufficient Number of Well Regarded Contributors to the New York Review of Books have determined that such Change is Morally Incumbent; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that intellectuals who have never run anything in their lives are the Fittest of all Living People to remedy virtually any evil by abolishing the forms of Government, Laws and Customs of Society to which the brutish and unreflective Common People are accustomed. And when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same Failed Dogmas of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy evinces a design to allow said Common People to evade all obligations to the Global Community, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide New and Expanded Regulations for the future better restriction of the Lower Orders as they deem Meet for the Purpose.

Why do Some Gun Owners Frown On Open Carry?

I’m still answering questions over at Quora, and – like blogging – it seems that you never know when a post is going to strike a nerve.  Right now, this answer has over 175k views, 1.5k upvotes, 10 shares and a shitload of comments.  It’s currently the second-most popular answer I’ve given over there since I signed up.  Interesting.

Well, I’m a gun owner, and I have open carried, but I draw a distinction between something like this:
and something like this:
The first is someone exercising his right to keep and bear arms in a fairly unobtrusive way. The second is exercising his right, but he’s carrying AT the general public. The second image shows the visual equivalent of “LOOK AT ME!!” I don’t think this is constructive or admirable.
I live in Arizona where the temperature for four or five months out of the year can be in excess of 100°F (38C). Wearing a concealment garment can be stifling, so on occasion I’ve worn a pistol openly (which has been perfectly legal in Arizona for a long time). But I’d never tote a long gun into a store unless it was a gun shop and I wanted to sell the gun or get it fixed.