Well THIS Certainly Violates The Narrative™

Schools are safer than they were in the 90s, and school shootings are not more common than they used to be, researchers say

From the linked piece:

Mass school shootings are incredibly rare events. In research publishing later this year, (James Alan) Fox (Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern) and doctoral student Emma Fridel found that on average, mass murders occur between 20 and 30 times per year, and about one of those incidents on average takes place at a school.

Their research also finds that shooting incidents involving students have been declining since the 1990s.

Four times the number of children were killed in schools in the early 1990s than today, Fox said.
“There is not an epidemic of school shootings,” he said

Not according to the bleating gun control crowd. The actual numbers are pretty bad, but they always have to inflate them because apparently reality isn’t bad enough. It’s like hate crimes. There’s more demand than there is supply.

Political Gaffe: When a Politician Accidentally Tells the Truth

This time it’s Bloomberg. In last night’s South Carolina debate, Bloomie admitted to buying the 2018 House Majority:

Slip of the tongue? Mike Bloomberg stops himself from saying he ‘bought’ all of the new Democrats’ seats

Let’s just go on the record. They talk about 40 Democrats, 21 of those were people that I spent $100 million to help elect. All of the new Democrats that came in, put Pelosi in charge, and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bought – I got them

He obviously didn’t quite stop himself.

See the previous example.

Paging Rick Mance, Rick Mance, Line 1!

Somebody came out with a new and improved hand-held mini-gun, the XM556 Microgun. Being fully automatic, it’s restricted to military, law enforcement, and (of course) Class III dealers. (Damn you, Hughes Amendment!)

Which Rick Mance of Traction Control blog is. Rick brought some interesting stuff to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. I’d imagine he’d like one of these for a dealer sample.

Update:  He beat me to it by a long shot.

Re-Imagine

From the new Paper-of-Record, The Babylon Bee comes a more accurate re-write of John Lennon’s classic “Imagine.” Here are the lyrics:

Imagine there’s no bread
It’s easy if you try
No tacos or hot sauce,
Nothing cold or fried,
Imagine all the people living in the gulags

Imagine there’s no money
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to eat or drink
And no bacon too
Imagine all the people living short life spans ooooh

You may say I’m a commie
But I’m not the only one
And someday you will join us
Or we’ll shoot you in the face

Imagine no possessions
Because all your stuff was redistributed
Lots of greed and hunger
But seriously please can I have a potato
Imagine all the people sharing all your stuff, yeah

You may say I’m a commie
But I’m not the only one
Did you say you don’t like that?
Then it’s the gulag for you, son

Quote of the day – Not Real Socialism Edition

I just recently had a “discussion” with someone on FB on the topic of “democratic socialism.”  He indignantly left the conversation when I posted this cartoon:

But that’s not the QotD.  This explanation – in its entirety – by Larry Corriea is:

I keep seeing this idiotic thing where “socialism” is used as a synonym for “government”. So if you like fire departments or roads, you’re a socialist…

BULLSHIT. These people drive me insane.

Government and its many programs all existed before Karl Marx. Socialism has an actual definition, and it isn’t this mealy mouthed, wishy-washy, nebulous, feel good, gibberish people use today. It actually means something.

Going back to the men who created the philosophy, socialism means that regular “value” isn’t what drives economics, instead production is coordinated through central government planning. That’s the key element. Duh.

In other words, you take decisions away from the people/the market who would normally make them based upon what they value, and instead put those decisions in the hands of government. This is why Bernie is offended by there being too many brands of deodorant.

It isn’t social programs. It isn’t roads. It isn’t fire departments. Or any other project governments have spent tax money on for thousands of years. If it was just that stuff they’d call themselves democrats/republicans in the US and this wouldn’t be an issue.

But Bernie calls himself a socialist for a reason, and words mean things. Socialism isn’t a blank slate for you to scribe your dreams on.

Which is why almost everybody who has actually studied history at all thinks actual socialism (as opposed to your fluffy magic unicorn version) is evil, while those who have studied history and still want it are wannabe totalitarians and statists who think it sounds awesome, because they assume they’re going to be the ones in charge. Then they sell the fluffy unicorn version of socialism to the useful idiots. They tell you it’s social programs and fairness, when actual reality is bread lines, inefficiency, and eventually gulags and firing squads.

Chris Matthews and James Carville are flaming liberals, but they’ve studied enough history to know that socialism is a terrifying evil. That should be a clue to all of you who normally identify as liberal, but who’ve been snookered into thinking socialism is innocuous.

And no, Denmark isn’t socialist, when even the PM of Denmark has to come out and say, Hey Bernie Bros, quit using us as an example of socialism, because we’re actually a traditionally capitalist nation with a lot of social programs.

Because again, socialism isn’t a synonym for government. Whenever you treat it as such, you’re being a useful idiot. When you say you prefer socialism, it’s actually you saying you want the government to be in charge of everyone’s business, because you think freedom is icky. (which is also why that declaration gets such a strong reaction from everyone who actually knows what socialism is)

This ignorance is partly the right’s fault for knee jerk reaction calling every government program socialist. However, they are right to do so if the program is designed to take freedom/decisions away from people/business, and instead have the government make those decisions for them. That would be socialist.

This is also why polls show young people prefer “socialism”, because they’re thinking of the fluffy unicorn version they’ve been sold. When you narrow it down and ask about specific policies, it turns out they don’t want the government telling them where/how/what they can do with their lives, while some unaccountable faceless bureaucrat decides what their time/labor/effort is worth.

If you’re just in favor of social programs and safety nets, the democrat party is thataway (and don’t blame me that they suck! That’s on them!). But don’t let the DNC’s suckiness confuse you into supporting a system which has been one of the greatest, actual evils in human history.

President Trump Starts to Drain the Swamp

J. Christian Adams weighs in on the weaponization of the Justice Department.

Justice is no longer blind. Investigations, charges, and even prison terms depend on the ideological views of the targets.

If you are a friend of the president, the Justice Department “career lawyers” will do all they can to find a venue in the District of Columbia where they know a rabid population of Democrat jurors will do all they can to send you to Big Sandy.

If you doubt me, you haven’t heard of Tomeka Hart, the nasty partisan jury foreman in Stone’s trial who should have never been on the jury in the first place.

The Scales of Justice come in two versions, one for Democrats and one for Trump.

Let’s examine those Justice Department “career lawyers.”

It is now plain that “career lawyer” isn’t a euphemism for unbiased and impartial. It’s exactly the opposite. It usually means Democrat, leftist, elitist, culturally hostile to middle America and feverishly anti-Trump.

Read the whole thing.