Author: Kevin

Separated at Birth?

“Mary Rosh” and now “Benny Smith?”

The Emory Wheel has the scoop.

What is it with academics and alternate on-line personalities?

(At least Bellesiles stayed male.)

Rush Confesses

Believe it or not, I don’t listen to Rush all that much, though I find him entertaining on occasion. I’ve listened this week because of the drug abuse accusation and because of the recall vote. Well, as I type, Rush is confessing to being an addict and announcing that he will be in rehab for the next 30 days.

I cannot help but wonder if his hearing loss was due to his drug abuse, as I have read is possible.

And I cannot help but wonder if he will go to jail and for how long. After all, I will be the first to admit that America is a country where you can often get all the justice you can afford. And he can afford.

The recall was interesting. This will be too.

“Because the gun industry is under special attack”

Eugene Volokh comments on this article in the Washington Post. Specifically on this question from The Violence Policy Center’s legal director, Dennis Hennigan:

“Why does the gun industry deserve special protection?”

Here’s what Prof. Volokh said (and I fully concur:)

Because the gun industry is under special attack.

If when someone drunk on Coors crashes his Mustang into me, I were able to successfully sue Coors and Ford for selling their products knowing that they cause death, or for recklessly and wantonly refusing to (for instance) install breathalyzer ignition overrides that would (maybe) help prevent drunk driving, then I’d see the bill as being about “special protection” (though then I’d just want it broadened to cars and alcohol, too). But right now, the bill is simply aimed at making sure that the tort liability system treats guns like other lawful but dangerous products.

He has more to say here.

Can I Get an “AMEN!”

Bill Whittle comments on the Democrat reaction to the California recall vote, but his last paragraph is the heart of it:

As I say when I watch a key football player on the opposing team get carried off the field: I hope he makes a speedy and complete recovery – next week. Right now, that’s how I feel about the radical left wing of the Democratic Party. I hope they continue to take that Party into flames and ruin, deep and severe enough to shake the serpents out of the tent, because that hateful, elitist group of social engineers that despise America also loathe and fear real democracy – and rightfully so, seeing how it keeps treating them. These people need to be confronted, ridiculed, challenged and discredited at every turn and in the bright light of day. Then, perhaps, the Democrats can return to the party claimed by Jefferson and Truman, and many millions of other decent, patriotic Americans, people of integrity with whom it is a pleasure – sometimes an honor – to disagree.

Holy Sweet Freakin’ Jebus!

I was perusing the Right Wing News and saw his post about the DU hysteria over Arnold’s victory (see my post below for more) and in the comments I found this link to the DU post of the century: (Link left dead on purpose – http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=495887&mesg_id=495887)

What we MUST realize in order to win – Americans are stupid and uninformed

This is very important because in order to win we must understand the way the average American thinks. I’m afraid WE have nothing in common with them.

Gee, YA THINK??? Yet you want to run the country! And call yourselves DEMOCRATS. I call you HYPOCRITES

I came to the two following conclusions when I saw the large number of people who voted for Bush back in 2000.

#1 – I would dare to assume that most of us here are in the upper 1%-20% of the population intelligence-wise. We must come to the realization that the majority of the population is in the lower 80% to 99% percent of the bell-curve. WE are not the norm.

In other words “WE’RE THE ELITE AND DESERVE TO RULE!”

The Republicans understand that the average American is not very bright. They cater and pander to the masses. The Democratic Party tries to appeal to the population about “issues” that these people just don’t understand.

Yes, government by majority rule doesn’t work because the majority is too stupid to vote right. Except, as I recall, it was the supporters of the DEMOCRATIC candidate for President who were too stupid to use a punchcard ballot correctly, no?

I’ve heard it said that the reason that Clinton’s sex scandal resonated so strongly among “the people” was because it was a scandal that the average American understood. The average person can’t understand a financial scandal.

No, we’re just used to those.

In addition, people of average or lower intelligence tend to not be as logical or reasoned as those of higher intelligence – they deal with emotion. Therefore they are more likely to get riled up about someone burning a flag rather than a illogical tax cut.

Give me a hundred engineers, a hundred programmers and a hundred Fine Arts majors and three hundred IQ tests. The engineers and programmers will score higher and will be overwhelmingly conservative.

#2 – The majority of people do not read the newspaper OR listen to the news, CNN, etc. Therefore -they get their news from the Tonight Show, Letterman, Oprah and Saturday Night Live. Or, they get their news from talking to their co-workers at the water cooler.

Also, for the few people who DO listen to the news – who do they hear it from? Fox News and Bill O’Reilly are the most popular. Most newspapers and media outlets are owned by Republicans.

And most newspapers and media outlets are staffed by liberals – check their voting records.

THIS is what we are fighting against people. In order to win we will need to start pandering to the masses.

Yes, you must try to “reach” the “little people” you just spit all over.

For all of your vaunted intelligence there “janekat” you just exposed yourself for what you really are – an elitist, snobbish, statist. Thanks.

(To their credit, many of the responders slammed “janekat” for being elitist. But many more did not. Go read if you’re not easily nauseated.)

UPDATE: Ravenwood comments on the same topic. Be sure you click on the “Would you like to know more?” button for the perfect illustration of “jadekat’s” mentality.

“Easy Availability?”

Seems that one Dave King, body-builder, security-type, guy with a known “record of ‘considerable criminality'” was shot to death on September 5. He was sitting in his car when two masked men drove by and opened up with an AK-47 automatic rifle. Twenty-five rounds of “armor piercing” (probably just standard military-spec steel-core stuff) 7.62×39 Russian were fired at the car, killing him, and wounding another.

Damn, just another case of those awful assault weapons that ought to be banned, BANNED I say!

Oh, wait…

This happened in ENGLAND. You know, where automatic weapons have been illegal since the 30’s and semi-automatic weapons since the mid 80’s.

As an interesting addendum, the story has a sidebar that says:

Appeal to underworld

OFFICERS leading the hunt for Mr King’s killers this week identified the weapon and ammunition used in the murder.

They are almost certain the weapon used was an AK47 Kalashnikov Russian-built military assault rifle and the ammunition was armour piercing.

Senior investigation officer Det Chief Supt Steve Read said: “Preliminary detailed examinations have confirmed that at least 25 rounds of 7.62mm x 39mm armour piercing ammunition was used in the murder of David King.

“I am keen to hear from members of the criminal fraternity who, although they may have a high tolerance to the use of firearms, would probably be shocked that a weapon designed for battlefield use which discharges high velocity armour piercing rounds has been used on a public street in suburban Hertfordshire.”

Really? Why? Automatic weapons are turning up in England fairly often. A submachine gun was used not so long back to gun down two young women, Charlene Ellis, 18, and Latisha Shakespear, 17, on New Year’s day, and police seize “assault weapons” repeatedly in raids.

If criminals want them, they’ll get them. “Easy availability” is not the problem.

Hell, in March a gang used automatic rifles and an anti-tank rocket to bust a gangster out of a Paris jail! I don’t believe those are all that “easily available” in France, either.

Any News on Roderick Pritchett?

His twice-delayed trial was supposed to start on Oct. 7.

Did it? Anybody in Illinois have any news? Google is useless on this one.

In the UK paper The Telegraph comes this story (registration may be required)

How to bring out the Lara Croft in you

Helen Kirwan-Taylor takes kung fu lessons and learns that the contents of her handbag can be lethal

Especially if there’s a .38 in it. But not in England.

You really want to believe that Kung Fu for Girls: Self-Defence for Divas by Simon Harrison is just another violent comic book. The heroine, a sexy, Lara Croft-style character, uses stunts, such as gouging out the eyes of a psychotic-looking mugger, to defend herself.

Sadly, however, as Harrison, a second degree black belt in Shaolin Ngor Chor kung fu and full-time martial arts coach, knows, street crime – and the scenes depicted in the book – is real. According to Metropolitan Police statistics, 4,558 people were robbed of, or had their personal property snatched in August alone.

It hadn’t occurred to me to learn self-defence until I witnessed a mugging from my window.

It’s never real to people until it happens to THEM, for some reason.

Our neighbour was attacked at 6pm by two young boys wanting his Rolex. It was terrifying. Then, one night, we woke to find a man in our hallway. He only managed to take my husband’s bike, but he left us all in a state of heightened anxiety. That same week, as a friend unloaded her shopping bags, a man attacked her from behind and stole the car.

One person, three personal stories of recent victimization. Sure is safe over there, isn’t it?

It was such stories, where the victims are defenceless, that inspired Harrison to write the book. “There are no accessible martial arts books available, and certainly none specifically targeted at women,” he says. Although there is a clear disclaimer at the front, each of the moves and techniques, which are given humorous names such as “Folding Villain” and “Bashing Barry”, are meant to be used only after everything else has failed.

According to Harrison, the first lesson of self-defence is to use no defence at all, but to run away: “A moving target is much harder to hit.”

Good advice, if you can take it.

The other best measure is to prevent the attack. “The most important weapon you can have is a preventative attitude,” he says. This means paying attention to “transitional phases” – when an individual is most vulnerable. “A woman will be driving and talking on a phone. She’ll open the car door, still talking, and whack, she’s attacked from behind,” he says.

This is called “situational awareness” – and most people go around in the state described.

Instead, the smarter move would be to: “Stay in the car and to have a good look round before you get out. Otherwise, stay in the car, where you’re protected, and finish the conversation.”

Muggers are usually opportunists. “If you throw an obstacle in the way of the attacker, he’ll pick another victim,” says Harrison. “The purpose of martial arts is to teach you to overcome the fear of violence, but not to foolish ends. If they want your watch, give it to them. Is a Rolex worth dying for?”

No, but stopping a criminal may be worth the risk of your life. That’s a decision that should be left to the individual – not pre-empted by the government. After all, if he’s willing to kill to steal my Rolex, his next crime might be to murder someone for one, no? And I will have not prevented a possible murderer from committing that heinous crime.

It’s not a matter of equivalence, it’s a matter of value. The attacker sets the value – to him my life is worth my watch. He’s apparently willing to kill me to get it. Well, my life is worth considerably more than that, but he is risking his life to get it. Except in England, where the possibility of him actually getting killed or injured is almost nil because of the laws there that require the attacked to respond with “an appropriate level” of resistance. Sorry. I think three rounds from a .45 is an “appropriate level of resistance.” So is kicking him in the nuts and beating him to a bloody pulp.

If preventative action fails, there are simple and effective moves to try. An obvious manoeuvre is to attack the groin – the most vulnerable part of the male anatomy. This explains why martial arts experts walk in a funny circular fashion, called circle stepping moves.

Harrison teaches me my first lesson in the park. We start with a move known as “Give Him Five”. For this, you assume the guard position, with one leg in front of the other (like a boxer), and use one arm to block the assailant’s arm, while using the palm of your other hand to push his head away. This is followed by a front kick to the groin and a secondary elbow attack to the side of the head.

The second position that Harrison teaches me is the “Back Seat Special”. It’s for use when, “You’re sitting on a bench and someone wraps their arm around your neck, attempting to drag you away”. This move, which is particularly vicious, again, involves using your palm to push his head back. Then, grab his nostrils, or eyes, to keep the head in place while hitting the throat with hand strikes.

Sounds effective. It’d be more effective if she had some sort of weapon in her hand. A 120 lb. woman being attacked by a 250 lb. man doesn’t have much in the way of advantage.

It took me several trial runs, but once I got the hang of it, I felt invincible.

Trial runs you won’t get if you’re actually attacked.

Practice, practice, practice.

If you learn to protect the centre of your body – which is where an attacker generally strikes – with a combination of arm blocks and kicks, you can proceed to the more advanced moves.

Protection is not just about Bruce Lee-style stunts. Harrison has an alternative set of self-defence weapons. For example, he suggests using the “awkward little tables” in bars as a shield against flying bottles and drunken attackers. The contents of a handbag are also lethal: a mobile phone can be used to beat an attacker over the head. Keys, too, can be used as a spiky assault weapon, when held between the knuckles. Even coins have a function: you can throw them in an attacker’s face as you flee. Stilettos are useful, too – the heel can be used to stomp on a shin bone.

Remember when “Stilletto” meant a long, slim-bladed knife?

Let me expound for a moment. England is suffering its high level of contact crime not because they have a handgun ban, but because the law since the 1950’s has made it legally hazardous for the victim to defend himself. Use force to defend yourself and you will risk being arrested and charged with use of “excessive force.” Use a weapon and you WILL be, and you’ll be charged with “carrying an offensive weapon” – and even if you win, going to trial is not cheap. The law has made the population of England sheep ready to be sheared.

Here in America much moaning and writhing and gnashing of teeth occurs whenever concealed-carry legislation is proposed where the gun-phobes and the pundits claim that “arming everyone” will make the streets much more dangerous. And it never happens. The streets get safer, and not everyone is armed. Usually only a small percentage of people eligible for concealed carry get the permits. Usually only a small percentage of the permitted actually carry.

But the criminals don’t know who is or who isn’t armed, they just know that mugging someone might get them shot. And THAT is “an obstacle in the way of the attacker” that will cause him to choose another victim – or another occupation. Contact crimes in England are only dangerous to the victims. That must change, or their crime rates will never go down.

Perhaps now that the levels have reached the point where there are so many victims, the attitude may finally change. When it does, and someone witnesses a mugging in progress, the mugger will be attacked by everyone around, and when the Bobbies show up, there will be a mugger’s bloody corpse on the ground and no one will have seen anything…

Update on the Ecodinnerswarriors Killed in Alaska

According to Yahoo! News there’s an audio tape of the incident. (Oh, and Amie Huguenard was a woman, not a man, as I’d mistakenly assumed.)

“They’re both screaming. She’s telling him to play dead, then it changes to fighting back. He asks her to hit the bear,” Hill said. “There’s so much noise going on. I don’t know what’s him and what might be an animal.”

Well, they’re now “one with the bears.”

Remember kids: Stupidity kills.

Or as Robert Heinlein put it: “Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”

Hey! I’m Voting for Kucinich in the Primary!

Jebus, this one’s hilarious!

Check out Kucinich behind the podium. And where’s Carol? Did she drop out while I wasn’t paying attention?

(Though I’d think Clark would trump Kerry’s military experience.)

Artist, Robert Ariail, of South Carolina’s The State.