Author: Kevin

KevinLeave a comment

Cue Islamic Rage Boy!.

(I especially like “I am not Amish!”)

Some 25 newspapers refused to carry last Sunday’s Opus cartoon. According to Eugene Volokh, one reason given was “a sex joke a little stronger than we normally see”. With all due respect: horseshit. As a commenter put it so succinctly:

Let’s not act all innocent here. The Post is not afraid of offending someone, they are afraid of offending someone who might bomb them. Breathed has gleeful drawn caricatures of evangelical Christians for years and the Post has complacently published them, not out bigotry but out of the tacit but wholly accurate calculation that evangelicals, whatever their shortcomings, are not likely to commit terrorist acts.

And remember the South Park Muhammed episode? The one Comedy Central censored? Who haven’t Matt Stone and Trey Parker skewered? No, this is simple cowardice.

Not so, here at TSM. Here’s the offending cartoon in all its glory:

Ah, Steve Dallas is a conflicted man.

Cognitive Dissonance

KevinLeave a comment

It raises its head once again. To quote Steven Den Beste:

When someone tries to use a strategy which is dictated by their ideology, and that strategy doesn’t seem to work, then they are caught in something of a cognitive bind. If they acknowledge the failure of the strategy, then they would be forced to question their ideology. If questioning the ideology is unthinkable, then the only possible conclusion is that the strategy failed because it wasn’t executed sufficiently well. They respond by turning up the power, rather than by considering alternatives. (This is sometimes referred to as “escalation of failure”.)

Or, as I put it:

The philosophy cannot be wrong! Do it again only harder!

We have some new stories coming out of the petri dishes of the UK Commonwealth.

Let’s start with this one:

Victims and offenders get younger

By Philip Johnston
Last Updated: 7:01am BST 24/08/2007
Periodically, there is a national outcry about guns on our streets. It reached a climax 20 years ago this week when Michael Ryan shot and killed 16 people, including his mother, wounded 15 others, then killed himself.

The massacre in Hungerford led to a ban on the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles.

In 1996, the murder of 15 children and their teacher at a school in Dunblane, Scotland, led to a complete ban on handguns.

Yet since then, the number of crimes involving guns has risen.

In 1996, there were 14,000 recorded offences in which firearms were reported to have been used. In 2005/6, the last period for which figures are available, there were 21,500.

Although the numbers dying through shooting is roughly similar, 50 victims in 1996 and last year, attempted murders and woundings are up 50 per cent.

Britain now has some of the toughest gun laws in the world – yet they did not prevent the appalling events in Croxteth.

Ergo: the strategy failed.

But the ideology cannot be wrong!

Yesterday, Gordon Brown said the Government was “working urgently” to tackle gun crime. But if previous laws have made little difference why should new ones?

The past year has seen another avalanche of legislation. The Government introduced a minimum five-year sentence for possessing an illegal firearm. They made it an offence to possess an air weapon or imitation firearm in public without legal authority or reasonable excuse.

The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 made it illegal to manufacture or sell imitation firearms that could be mistaken for real firearms. It also strengthened sentences for carrying imitation firearms, and created tougher manufacturing standards so imitations cannot be converted to fire real ammunition.

The Home Office boasted: “We’re cutting off the supply of firearms into the country.”

“Do it again, only HARDER!

But the guns are already here; and they are increasingly easy to get. Home Office research indicated that an imitation firearm could be bought for £20 and a shotgun for £50. A military-quality handgun will go for around £1,000. An automatic weapon sells for between £800 and £4,000.

Think about that. Gun control supporters here object to our pointing out the failure of DC’s draconian gun ban (there were seven homicides in DC last week, at least five of which were by firearm), or Chicago’s handgun ban to have any positive effect on the level of gun crime in those cities. They blame “lax gun control laws” in the surrounding areas for the influx of guns into those cities. However, England has all the laws that the Brady Campaign et. al think are “common sense”: “may-issue” ownership licensing with full background check and character references, “safe storage” requirements with surprise inspection powers by the State, restrictions on the amount and type of ammunition permit holders can possess, a complete ban on “military style” semi-automatic rifles, a complete ban on handguns, the whole nine yards. More importantly, the UK is an island – there are no neighbors just across the state or county line with “lax gun laws” that allow an easy flow of illicit guns. You’ve got to smuggle them in through the ports of entry, or by boat. Yet gun prices are barely above American retail, and fully-automatic weapons can cost less than a handgun.

But does anybody learn from this? Hardly. Washington D.C. is going to the Supreme Court to prevent its bans from being overturned. The city of Philadelphia is currently experiencing a tremendous increase in homicides, so two city council members are suing the state legislature so that Philadelphia can pass its own gun control laws, and activist lawyer Michael Coard wants to sue the NRA for influencing the Pennsylvania state legislature into passing preemption laws.

There’s more to that piece, and I recommend you read it, but let’s move on to the next story that covers the slaying of an 11 year-old boy in Liverpool:

Former detective: It is a gangland culture

Albert Kirby, Former Detective Superintendent, Merseyside Police, on the problem of gun crime in Liverpool:

“Like other areas of Liverpool, Croxteth has become increasingly more difficult to police over the years due to the gang type culture and the reluctance of people living in the area either to come forward and give either evidence or information about those involved in the gang culture, drugs and crime groups.

“It is the same throughout the city. Once upon a time it used to be fists on the street corner. Then they started to use any sort of weapons – hammers or axes. Now the readily availability of fire arms has opened up a whole new ball game.

But licensing, registration, “safe storage” and outright bans are supposed to prevent “ready availability,” aren’t they? That’s what the ideology says!

“Fire arms can be obtained very cheaply and after they have been used criminals can dispose of them because they are so cheap – a handgun can be bought for about £25 a time.

Yet the earlier piece said a “military quality” handgun would go for about £1,000. What are these, cheap “Saturday Night Specials”? Just so you know, at current exchange rates, £25 is $50 US.

“Fire arms are so readily available that you can go out on the street, make the necessary enquiries and come up with them. It is that easy.

Ergo: the strategy failed.

“The legislation that came in after the Dunblane shooting in 1996 has been utterly and totally ineffective. It was a waste of space. With the borders disappearing in Europe there are no checks on firearms coming in from abroad. They come from Eastern Bloc countries, recommissioned firearms, and a steady flow coming out of the world’s conflict zones.

See! See! It’s the fault of neighboring states with lax gun laws!

Oh, wait…

“Merseyside Police have done a tremendous amount of work to recover firearms. But bearing in mind the amount of firearms that are available it is very difficult.

“For a lot of these kids, it is a status symbol to them. In the sixties they would have the drainpipe trousers and the slicked hair, and then the mods and rockers in the 1970s with their crash hats.

“Now guns are like a status symbol: ‘If you diss me I will shoot you because I have got a gun’. It is part of the culture, it is a gangland culture.

“Croxteth is a poor area. I would think there are a lot of unemployed people there. In that area drugs are just prolific.

So are guns. Cheap guns.

“This poor lad was in the wrong place at the wrong time. These people have been feuding and the poor guy has got in the way. What justification can these people have to shoot an 11-year-old boy who has not done any harm to anyone. He comes from a decent family.

“Where do we go from here? Firstly, we have to change the street culture which accepts guns. That will be a long-term issue – like tackling anti-social behaviour.

With what? Judicious application of ASBOs?

“Secondly, these incidents will continue to happen unless people are willing to come forward as witnesses.

Even though you cannot/will not protect them from retaliation, and they cannot protect themselves.

“The system in the judicial process is so good now at protecting identities. People have to learn to have faith in the system.

You’re going to protect the identities of the witnesses? How? Relocate them to Australia? The people have an abiding faith in the system. They believe faithfully that it’s not going to do squat to help them. They have reason to believe that.

“Thirdly, the courts are so woeful. These people hate going to prison. Scousers have an expression that they can do it standing on their head. But standing on their head gets harder as they get older.

“The courts should say that if someone is sentenced for an offence, and a firearm is used, even if it is a replica, that person are going to prison for a long time.”

They may say it, but as you said, the courts are woeful, and your prisons are overcrowded already.

No wonder there’s no trust.

Finally we travel far across the pond to Australia, to the little town of Roseville, a Northern suburb of Sydney in New South Wales where a new gun shop has opened:

Residents irate over gunshop permit: what do we tell our children?

What a fascinating question!

UP IN arms would accurately describe the incensed reaction of Roseville residents to news that a gunshop is to open in their midst.

Last night hundreds were expected to pack a community hall to protest against the approval granted by Ku-ring-gai Council, apparently without notification to those who may have an opinion about such an enterprise.

Andrew Peter, a gun enthusiast and coffee shop owner from Bondi Junction, made an application last month to turn an old printing shop into a sporting goods and firearms store. One of the main reasons for his decision was the estimated 1300 firearm owners who live in the area.

I’m curious as to how much territory “in the area” covers.

The shop is opposite a community hall that runs a preschool centre. It is also near a bus interchange used by schoolchildren, and some neighbouring businesses say the approval, although legal, is inappropriate.

Lisa Warrand is one of dozens of parents who fear the worst: the potential for an armed hold-up and shootout, or merely having to explain to children who walk past every day why a shop sells guns. (My emphasis.)

“Roseville has five churches and no pubs. People buy in this area because they want a more family-focused area,” she said yesterday. “We teach children about how bad guns are and yet we are being put into a position where we have to explain why there is a man in the car park carrying a gun bought across the road.” (My emphasis.)

Sally Cochrane runs the Zest hairdressing salon a few doors away. She concedes that the chances of a hold-up are slim but says it is a risk that should rule out the shop from the neighbourhood. “Children and guns don’t mix. It’s as simple as that, and if there is a robbery then it could be disastrous. I accept that this man has a right to open his shop and to sell guns, but not here.”

Rob Hudspith disagrees. He owns the bicycle shop nearby and says the biggest mistake was that no one was given details of the application by the council.

“If they didn’t have a legal obligation, then they had a moral one,” Mr Hudspith said. “Personally, I don’t have any problems, but there is an inherent fear of firearms, and who can blame people for being worried?” (My emphasis.)

A council spokesman said the approval was assessed under State Government planning laws. The business would have to comply with strict laws covering handling, storage and safety.

The Liberal MP for Davidson, Jonathan O’Dea, backs the residents, denying it is nimbyism.

The Shooters Party accuses Mr O’Dea of stirring up trouble by instigating a survey of residents. Mr Peter says he is willing to compromise with extra security to ensure residents feel safe. “Sure, I understand their feelings and I’m happy to talk to them about their concerns, but they don’t have anything to worry about.” (My emphasis.)

There’s the ideology, ladies and gentlemen: “GUNS ARE BAD, mmmkay?” Its root is the belief that all violence is bad; the inability to differentiate between “violent and predatory” and “violent but protective” that leads to the totemic belief that the tools of violence are the cause of violence. The outcome of that flawed ideology is licensing, registration, restriction, bans, confiscation… and rising violent crime.

But cognitive dissonance prevents people from questioning the ideology. The result is escalation of failure, and a complete inability to implement any kind of successful strategy. As Say Uncle put it, “Gun control is what you do instead of something.”

KevinLeave a comment

(Audio) Receiver Bleg.

Well, my Technics SA-EX400 receiver has finally given up the ghost. It is no more. It’s a dead parrot.

I need a new one.

There is never a good time to buy new audio equipment – everything changes so fast in that industry. I remember reading some piece of fiction sometime where the main character said something on the order of “I’m not going to start buying compact discs until somebody promises me that this is the LAST change they’re going to make!”

I am not an audiophile. This thing goes into my living room, where the acoustics are about equivalent to a – well, a living room. Not a listening chamber.

Here’s what I hook to it:

A turntable (needs a needle, though.)
A dual cassette deck
A 5-disc CD changer
A VCR
A DVD player (non-HD, but maybe someday)

This receiver is a 5 channel (maybe 5.1, but I don’t recall seeing a subwoofer output. Hey, it’s been a couple of years…) I use the two main channels and the center channel. It has Dolby Pro Logic, which I like, even though I’m not using the extra two channels. Again, maybe some day. It has an AM/FM tuner as well.

My budget is about $300 +/-. Any suggestions?

KevinLeave a comment

I Call “BULLSHIT!”.

Via Instapundit we get a story in the Asia Times Online about how “emergent powers are primed to erode US hegemony, not confront it, singly or jointly.” That part I don’t disagree too much with. It is, in fact, pretty much inevitable in a world that has competition. The part I call “BULLSHIT!” on is this:

The George W Bush administration’s debacle in Iraq is certainly a major factor in this transformation, a classic example of an imperialist power, brimming with hubris, overextending itself. To the relief of many – in the US and elsewhere – the Iraq fiasco has demonstrated the striking limitations of power for the globe’s highest-tech, most destructive military machine.

Here’s a clue, Hiro: The U.S. is not an “imperialist power.” We do not invade nations to make them our vassals and demand tribute. That is what an empire does. Or it decimates the population and takes everything. We go in, liberate populations, try to build democratic structures for the good of the people living there and then we leave. Oh, and then we trade with them, to our mutual benefit.

The only limitations on “the highest-tech, most destructive military machine” in the world is the decency of America and Americans.

We tried the “empire” thing around the turn of the 20th century, following the major European powers, but it just doesn’t play well with Americans. If we were truly an empire, we’d OWN the Middle East, even if that required making glass craters out of some of its major cities, but we don’t think that way.

Here’s what other countries (and journalists) just don’t get about America, as so eloquently expressed by Eric S. Raymond:

I was traveling in Europe a few years back, and some Euroleftie began blathering in my presence about America’s desire to rule the world. “Nonsense,” I told him. “You’ve misunderstood the American character. We’re instinctive isolationists at bottom. We don’t want to rule the world — we want to be able to ignore it.”

KevinLeave a comment

A Sign of Hope?.

Via Kim I just spent the last thirty minutes reading The Day Reality Hit Home, a three-part piece on the UK’s Guardian website. This is a first-person story of how a writer for the über-liberal newspaper had his entire worldview changed after September 11, 2001. It is very much worth your time. I’m quite amazed that The Guardian published it.

For me, the key passage is this one:

A society that places great emphasis on respecting others has next to nothing to say about protecting others.

…my stepdaughter was set upon in a busy high street by a gang of teenagers in an unprovoked attack. Scores of adults looked on and not one of them did or said anything to help. When she described how grown-up faces turned away from her as kicks and punches flew, I could only conclude that everyone was waiting. They were waiting for society to change, for it to become less unfair, with more equitable wealth distribution, so that street violence would miraculously disappear. They were waiting for schools to improve, and more youth centres to be built, and better housing. Or they were waiting for the police, the police who ought to be everywhere at all times but who should also maintain a low profile. Or perhaps they were just waiting for somebody else, anybody but themselves.

Read the whole thing:

Part I

Part II

Part III

A Strongly Recommended Read.

KevinLeave a comment

The Peace Racket, in the latest issue of City Journal. The money quote:

George Orwell would have understood the attraction of privileged young people to the Peace Racket. “Turn-the-other-cheek pacifism,” he observed in 1941, “only flourishes among the more prosperous classes, or among workers who have in some way escaped from their own class. The real working class . . . are never really pacifist, because their life teaches them something different. To abjure violence it is necessary to have no experience of it.”

And the final paragraph echoes much of what I have been saying here – and expands on it – since I started this blog.

KevinLeave a comment

Ammo Prices.

Heard this afternoon at a local gun shop (I paraphrase):

Sept. 1, expect a 22% retail price increase.

Nov. 1 or thereabouts, expect a 13% retail price increase.

Jan. 1 or thereabouts, expect a 35% price increase.

That’s an 86% increase in less than six months. The person relating this information was standing behind the counter, not in front of it.

Take this as you wish, but I think I’ll be stocking up on components before the end of the year.

UPDATE: Confederate Yankee has an excellent post concerning ammunition availability and pricing. It isn’t just metals pricing nor the war. Demand is at an all-time high from police agencies – and the cops buy their ammunition not from the Lake City Arsenal, but from the same manufacturing plants that you and I do.

Like Hell it Was.

KevinLeave a comment

I like George Hill, proprietor of the singular blog Mad Ogre (note to George: permalinks would be nice.) He’s an opinionated SOB, but aren’t we all? I read George because he’s an interesting writer (could use spell check from time to time – OK, a lot) and I enjoy a lot of what he has to say.

But not all. Especially not when I read things like this:

I was asked about the Confederate flag in my banner artwork. Really that was the idea of the artist who put it in there… as to him it expressed the MadOgre.com vibe. To me, it does that too… and a little more. First off, I’m a Son of the South… so let me explain this as best as I can… The Confederate flag is not a symbol of hate as the damn Yankees would have you believe. It was the flag of the Confederate States of America. This is a part of our shared American History, not just a south eastern regional thing… It’s not saying I want to start my own country or that I want to own me some niggers to pick my cotton back at the ol’ plantation. That’s just ignorant stereotyping to even think that when you see the Dixie flag. The way I see it, it’s about Liberty.

OK so far, I’m with him. I think the Confederate flag controversy is far overblown. But then this:

The War of Northern Aggression was, in a nut shell, about States Rights. About the individual states deciding on how to run their own states… about not letting the Federal Government dictate matters that should be local matters.

The “War of Northern Aggression” began when the South captured Ft. Sumter – a Federal Fort. The Civil War was, like it or not, a war over the practice of slavery and the desire to continue it. It was a war that was born in the compromises required to ratify the Constitution in 1788. Yes, “States rights” was the excuse nearly all (especially non-slaveowning) Southerners used to explain their reason for fighting, but slavery was the causus belli.

This is a concept completely alien to so many Americans now. What with George Bush being the controller of everything…

To a large extent this perception is true. It is also true that it is, in part, one result of the war – in which “These United States” became THE United States.

the President of the United States is evidently responsible for your local municipal road maintenance and everything else now. This is BS.

Granted. But this outcome is not entirely due to the Civil War, it’s due in large part to 150+ years of entropy, wherein busybodies from both sides have come to make the Republicans into the “Daddy” party, and the Democrats into the “Mommy” party. And whoever is sitting in the White House is seen by the majority of the population as “the Father of the Nation.” Yes, it’s BS, but it’s the logical outcome of our system of government. “Democracy” is the problem, not the Civil War.

Local folks should manage local matters. Simple as that. Salt Lake City should not have to bow down to the wishes of Boston or San Francisco. And vice-versa. Or in San Fran’s case – vice-vice. Or Washington DC. What does Washington DC know about the Uintah Basin? Those inside the Belt Way have never even been here, yet they have the audacity to tell me what’s best for me and my own here? They are going to tell us what to do and when? I don’t believe that’s right. That’s not the way it is supposed to work.

Also granted. But there it is.

Yes, I believe The South should have won. Many Southern Scholars believe that Slavery would have been ended within a short number of years anyways and The South would have returned to the The Union all on its own.

And many scholars do not. I do not believe the South should have won, not if their goal (as stated) was secession from the Union.

The only difference is that The South would have rejoined on their own terms and not as subjects of The North. I also believe that. The writing was on the wall even then.

This is the part I take strongest exception to, because I don’t believe the South would have rejoined the North. I think the result of the South winning the war would have been eventual disaster on the global scale. Perhaps the best example of this comes from the novels of historian Harry Turtledove. His “Great War” series examines one possible outcome of a Southern victory, and it’s not only plausible, to me it is chillingly convincing.

Of course those of you who get your history strictly from Yankee written books might think otherwise because you guys want to feel justified in your invasion of The South. The War of Northern Aggression seriously damaged The South in ways Yankees don’t and never will understand. The economic scars remain there today. I know it’s hard to understand, but there is more to The South than just grits and Dollywood… even though those are some of the best things.

My parents were born and raised in a coal town in Virginia. I was born in Lexington, Kentucky and raised mostly in Florida. I’m not a DamnYankee, and neither are they. Yes, the loss of the war and the economic predation that occurred during Reconstruction did vast damage to the South, but the preservation of the Union, with all of its warts, was better than letting the nation dissolve as I believe it would have done.

George thinks that the South would have rejoined the North, though from the sound of his jeremiad he’d be just as happy if the South had won and remained separate, or marched into Washington and demanded surrender. (Had that happened – and were the union preserved because of it – I might not be so piqued about this.) But preservation of the Union was what motivated Lincoln, and he was right. The war was, at its root, about whether it was morally right for human beings to own other human beings. If you read the words of the Founders, especially the philosophical justification expressed in the Declaration of Independence, then this nation could not have endured a continuation of the practice of slavery. It took seventy years for the fuse lit by the ratification of the Constitution to ignite the powder keg that was the Civil War, but any other outcome, I believe, would have been disastrous for both America and Europe. The damage caused to the South was tiny compared to what could have happened.

KevinLeave a comment

“No wonder so many women have self-esteem problems.”

Via The Unforgiving Minute comes a link to iWANEX Studio, a “professional photo retouching studio.” The title of this post comes from the link, and I think it’s quite appropriate. Go to the site and click on the “portfolio” link. There are several examples of their work available to review. They are, I will admit, very skillful. Here’s an example of after-and-before:

The effect is much more, er, impressive when you see it as a mouse rollover.

Jeebus. What are we doing to our kids?