Month: June 2020

Another Plastic Turkey Story

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So the media has been ranting about Trump’s march through Lafayette Park to St. John’s Episcopal Church, the victim of arson the previous night. 
I could go on, but it’s not necessary.  The story is bullshit, like so much coming from the media.  These days, nearly everything.
It’s another Plastic Turkey! story, so good, so juicy it just HAS to be true!  ORANGE MAN BAD!!

Quote of the Day – Re: George F. Will

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I’ve read some of George F. Will’s work, and generally found it worthy.  In fact, I transcribed one of his speeches here at TSM, titled “Learned Feudalism” from the 2010 Cato Institute Milton Friedman Prize dinner.  It was witty, erudite, and absolutely accurate.

But the election of Donald J. Trump seems to have unhinged him.  He is the Never-Trumper’s Never-Trumper.  Over at Instapundit Ed Driscoll comments on a XiNN piece about Will’s most recent Washington Post op-ed calling for a rout of the Republican party to — one assumes — “restore” the REAL “Conservatives.”  But that’s not the QotD.  That honor belongs to a commenter, DoggerelPundit, who I think has accurately described what has happened to Will:

Pierre Boulle drew this man’s exact caricature in Col. Nicholson. He was oh so British and so the pinnacle of Civilization with a capital C. Though their prisoner, with his men forced into slave labor, Col. Nicholson would show his uncivilized captors a thing or two about British superiority. He built their “unbuildable” bridge, furthering their war effort in the process. Only at the end did he realize.
Yes, Mr. Will would fit right into Bridge Over the River Kwai.

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Parking Lot Koreans

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During the Rodney King riots, Koreatown in Los Angeles was a target of the rioters. The police, like they have in Minneapolis, abandoned the city. The shop owners in the area, their friends and families, defended their businesses, some from the roofs of their buildings – AKA “Roof Koreans.” Since then, anyone who defends against rioters has been termed a “Roof Korean” in the gun community.
Here are some that defended a Minneapolis tobacco store recently. Watch the video, but I want to show you a screen shot you won’t see on ABCNNBCBS or any other major news outlet:
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-ec7b2ec02f161b726f7cb08e141eea4f

The two self-confessed “rednecks” are being interviewed. The two “gentlemen of color” off to the right there also defending the store, were not. Note they all are carrying the evil AR-15 rifle, but they aren’t shooting anyone.

The Second Amendment is for everybody.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y1KDoRQ5Tw]

The Practical Result of “Gun Control”

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Just over 17 years ago I wrote a two-part post, Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection?  In it, I discussed a couple of cases that proved that there is no “Duty to protect” on the part of the government — municipal, county, state or federal.  The second example was of Linda Riss, a New York City resident who was stalked by a jilted lover.  She tried to get police protection, but could not.  Until an attacker hired by her ex threw lye in her face, scarring and blinding her.  THEN she got round-the-clock protection.  She sued the NYPD – and lost. 
The dissenting judge in the case wrote this:
Linda has turned to the courts of this State for redress, asking that the city be held liable in damages for its negligent failure to protect her from harm. With compelling logic, she can point out that, if a stranger, who had absolutely no obligation to aid her, had offered her assistance, and thereafter Burton Pugach was able to injure her as a result of the negligence of the volunteer, the courts would certainly require him to pay damages. (Restatement, 2d, Torts, § 323.) Why then should the city, whose duties are imposed by law and include the prevention of crime (New York City Charter, § 435) and, consequently, extend far beyond that of the Good Samaritan, not be responsible? If a private detective acts carelessly, no one would deny that a jury could find such conduct unacceptable. Why then is the city not required to live up to at least the same minimal standards of professional competence which would be demanded of a private detective?
Linda’s reasoning seems so eminently sensible that surely it must come as a shock to her and to every citizen to hear the city argue and to learn that this court decides that the city has no duty to provide police protection to any given individual. What makes the city’s position particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any weapon for self-defense (former Penal Law, § 1897). Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of New York which now denies all responsibility to her.” (My emphasis)
As I wrote at that time, this is the practical result of “gun control.” Denial of the means to defend yourself, while not providing any other layer of real protection.

This situation has raised its head again in many places, but New York in particular.  Read the New York Post piece Worse than War:  My Night Besieged by Looters and Thugs in New York.  Excerpt:

Every minute brought some new shock and a fresh surge of adrenaline: more and more of those roving gangs, some sticking around for minutes. Squad cars racing down in convoy, sirens blaring. The smashing of windows (a hair salon on the block, I learned in the morning, had been smashed in). The screeching of tires. The shouting of men: “Stop, you motherf–ker!”
Why won’t the men in blue stay in front of our house?
At two in the morning, it couldn’t be denied that one particular roving gang was roving no more; its members were obviously staking out our building. Now cackling, now going ominously silent. Should I race upstairs and bring a kitchen knife? How would this scenario play out? Would they just smash our lobby and leave? What could stop them if they wanted to take the elevators up to our homes?

Not a damned thing.  It’s a meme, but it’s a fact:

See also Joe Huffman’s Quote of the Day.

“Our first purpose was not to be noticed.”

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A long time ago I read Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for the first of many, many times.  I’m pretty sure I was twelve or thirteen at the time. 
For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, the Earth is governed by a United Nations of sorts, and has turned the moon into a penal colony much like England did with Australia.  Subtle difference, though, without certain drugs and strenuous exercise, spending too long on Luna will result in irreversible physiological changes that prohibit living on Earth again except as an invalid.  The moon, through hydroponic farming using water from lunar pockets of ice, has become the breadbasket of humanity.  A massive linear accelerator is used to send cargo packages of grain down the gravity well to feed Earth.
The population of Luna is only partially convicts as the story begins.  Most of the residents have either served their sentences or been born there as “free people.”  Free being a relative term.  The Authority runs the colonies, and there are several. 

The crisis is that if projections are accurate, Luna is going to run out of water soon, and Earth doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know.  And they want “the convicts” to just do their jobs and feed Earth.

So a small group decides that the only way to save Luna is to have a revolution.  Here’s the passage that struck me so many years ago:

Our first purpose was not to be noticed.  Long distance purpose was to make things worse as much as possible.  Yes, worse.  Never was a time, even at last, when all Loonies wanted to throw off Authority, wanted it bad enough to revolt.  All loonies despised Warden and cheated Authority.  Didn’t mean they were ready to fight and die.

This popped up over on FB a day or two ago, a Tweet from Jeremy Boreing, one of the producers of Ben Shapiro’s podcast and other Daily Wire things, I think:
  1. Instill fear
  2. Lock people in their houses
  3. Drive tens of millions out of work
  4. Remove the pressure valves:  sports, concerts, bars, theaters. lunch with friends
  5. Close the churches
  6. Dehumanize through masking the healthy
  7. Wait
  8. Strike match
I don’t think this was orchestrated, any more than I think the WuFlu was a bioweapon, but the groundwork had already been laid and full advantage is being taken.
Marx defined revolution as violent overthrow of state and economic system when workers would come out of their false consciousness and would realize their exploitation done by the capitalist society. According to Marx, capitalism will eventually dig its own grave but the working class should not wait for it to happen on its own and rather catalyze the process to end their misery through revolution.
The next stage after revolution would be Socialism.  We have had more than one generation “educated” in our places of “higher learning” that Capitalism is Bad and Socialism is Good:

I’m not saying that this is that “revolution.” I think it’s another “wet firecracker,” but there will be more of this, more often, until the entire system collapses, because a significant portion of the population, many working in government and media, want it to and are actively, quietly working towards it.  Things have to get worse before Joe Sixpack will be willing to fight and die.
Thing is, I don’t think the Socialists are the ones expecting to die.

Quote of the Day – Sarah Hoyt Edition

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From a post at Instapundit:

Two things, before my calm gets damaged further.
a) most businesses are not insured against civil unrest. Most will get nothing.
b) when you say “are your possessions worth a human life?”  Most people’s possessions are their lives. They spent days of their lives and strength and health to acquire them.
As for their being “worth” a human life…  Humans who think it’s okay to hurt people and take their stuff are only going to cost more lives in the long run. The right to be secure in your possessions is part of what made America great. Who will work, invest, innovate, if at any minute the government can decide their work is non-essential and brownshirts at the service of the democrats can burn it all down?
You allow this to continue, you have Mogadishu, not the US.