Author: Kevin

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Ok, Here’s My 2¢

Ever since Kim du Toit wrote his piece “The Pussification Of The Western Male” (link is temporary) there has been a lot of comment on it all over the blogosphere. Most positive, some negative, some downright hilarious. It is, as Donald Sensing put it, “over the top” in places, but that’s just Kim.

But let me put in my 2¢ on the subject.

Kim is not an isolated male. He’s married. And Connie is no shrinking violet. And on her webpage is her manifesto:

Men create and defend societies. Women civilize them.

Men have been holding up their end of the bargain. We women have dropped the ball entirely.

We can, must, and will do better

Remember that when you read Kim’s rant.

Civilized does not equal pussified.

Edited to add this appropriate quote:

To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem.

To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized,

merely the domesticated. – Trefor Thomas

UPDATE: Like I actually need to link it, the Blogfather has a link-filled post on the controversy.

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The War on (some) Drugs™ Claims Another Victim

One Clayton Helriggle, age 23, this time. Read the entire story.

Then read this follow-up.

Due to a “lack of cooperation” from individuals involved in the September 2002 law enforcement action in which Clayton Helriggle was shot and killed, an administrative investigation by Montgomery County Sheriff’s officials ended without “any conclusions of fact in the matter.”

Why am I not surprised?

The Brits Remain Clueless About the Failure of Gun Control

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The Brits Remain Clueless About the Failure of Gun Control

At least according to this BBC report. They blame the internet and the postal system as a source of guns (which it very well may be, but how big a source?).

There are lots of interesting links on that page too. Like this one about the recently ended “gun amnesty” where some 43,908 guns and 1,039,358 rounds of ammunition were handed in.

Now, understand that all legally owned firearms and ammunition are registered. All handguns are banned.

And 43,908 firearms (no information, but you can bet very, very few were registered) were turned in.

And we’re supposed to believe that they were turned in by violent or potentially violent criminals. But according to this story, it didn’t affect the inner cities – which is where the violence is occurring.

So this tells me a couple of things: One, there are a lot of people in England who have (or did have) illegal guns and ammunition, so there is or was a significant amount of civil disobedience regarding these laws. Two, these people aren’t the ones the government needed to worry about. The people the government needs to worry about didn’t hand their guns in.

There were also some interesting bits of data provided in an internal link. I will present them below without comment:

Well no more comment than this: Gun control does not disarm those people willing to commit violent crime. It only disarms their potential victims.

UPDATE: Ravenwood notes that the Brits are also blaming Ebay.

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I’d Have Held Out for Catherine

A good joke off of AR15.com:

One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, his axe fell into the river.

When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, “Why are you crying?” The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living.

The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe.

“Is this your axe?” the Lord asked.

The woodcutter replied, “No.”

The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe.

“Is this your axe?” the Lord asked.

Again, the woodcutter replied, “No.” The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. “Is this your axe?” the Lord asked.

The woodcutter replied, “Yes.” The Lord was pleased with the man’s honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.

Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, “Why are you crying?”

“Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!” The Lord went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. “Is this your wife?” the Lord asked.

“Yes,” cried the woodcutter.

The Lord was furious. “You lied! That is an untruth!”

The woodcutter replied, “Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said ‘no’ to Jennifer Lopez, You would have come up with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Then if I also said ‘no’ to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said ‘yes,’ you! would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of all three wives, so THAT’S why I said yes to Jennifer Lopez.”

The moral of this story is: Whenever a man lies, it is for a good and honorable reason, and for the benefit of others.

That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

Can I get an “AMEN!”?

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Hit ‘Em Again, Dipnut!

Dipnut over at Isn’tapundit has an excellent disassembly of Bezerkly professor George Lakoff’s assertion that conservative think tanks “use language to dominate politics.” Excerpt:

No, don’t tell me, I think I can guess:

We say things that make sense, and you don’t?

Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them, says Lakoff.

No fair having ideas! That’s like…like…beating up a baby or something!

The work has paid off: by dictating the terms of national debate, conservatives have put progressives firmly on the defensive.

That’s not our only dastardly trick. We also have ideas which map to the world we live in as it actually exists! We’ve harnessed objective reality itself, to serve our political ends! Bwahahahahaaah!

Go read the whole thing. It’s great for a laugh.

When you’re done with that one, go read this outstanding City Journal piece (link courtesy of Bill Hobbs) on “Why We’re Not Losing the Culture Wars Anymore.” When you’re done with that, go read Hobbs. It’s all outstanding. (And I’m not saying that just because he linked to me long, long ago, either.)

UPDATE: Swen of Coyote at the Dog Show comments on the original piece, and makes some telling points.

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Hell-Bent for the Cliff?

Eric Raymond of Armed and Dangerous posts about the apparent direction of the Democrat party – oblivion. Like most all of his posts, it’s well thought-out. Excerpts:

The Democrats certainly seem to be trying pretty hard to self-destruct. But this is not a new story; it’s been going on ever since the New Left captured the party apparat in the early 1970s. My first experience of political activism was standing athwart that particular tide of history, yelling “stop!”, as a campaign worker for centrist Democrat Scoop Jackson in 1975. I think I already half-understood that he was doomed. What I didn’t foresee was the completeness with which the Democrats would abandon their southern and rural wings to become a party run exclusively by Brie-nibbling urban elites. Call it the NPRization of the party.

—

Ever since the early 1990s, there’s been a tug-of-war going on within the urban elites that now run the party; the Democratic Leadership Council versus the inheritors of the New Left. What’s happening now with the Dean campaign demonstrates that the DLC has lost its grip. The left is winning. The trend that has taken the Democrats from solid majority status in my childhood to the point where it needs a Bill Clinton to win elections, if it continues, might very well result in it disappearing into history.

The DLC’s most recent effort to reverse this tend — to stop talking about gun control — only highlights the depth of the problem. They know, because their own analysts and Bill Clinton have told them, that gun owners are the swing vote that cost them the 1994 and 2000 elections. And yet, the left, for whom hatred of civilian firearms is a religious absolute, has such a lock on the party machine that the DLC can only talk about spin, not about a substantive change in platform.

All very true. But I don’t think The Anointed are going go over the cliff without dragging as many with them as they can.

Read the whole thing.

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More Crushing of Dissent

Apparently CBS stands for “Caught Being Shitty.” Drudge is reporting a CBS statement that they will not be showing the controversial mini-series “The Reagans” starring James “Mr. Streisand” Brolin. The reason?

This decision is based solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted around a draft of the script.

Although the mini-series features impressive production values and acting performances, and although the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience. Subsequent edits that we considered did not address those concerns.

So now they claim to be “balanced?”

Or were they just afraid of a libel lawsuit?

I can hear the howls of “CENSORSHIP!!” now. Tim Robbins might never work again.

Oh, wait….