Category: Uncategorized

THIS is the Funniest Thing I’ve Seen in a While

Link via Common Sense and Wonder – The Difference Between Italy and the EU, a short film.

My wife, who has worked with all manner of Europeans, says it’s bang-on accurate.

Glenn Reynolds for President!

NOTE: THIS POST IS UPDATED CONSTANTLY! (Nominees are now listed here.)

And Rachel Lucas for VP!

Jeff at Alphecca states the case plainly:

I mentioned that both the Democrats and the Republicans suck and we need something, someone in-between — a libertarian — to promote for president.

—

Anyway, in my previous post I speculated (fantasized) that in two or three election cycles (say, 2008 or 2012) we in the blogosphere could promote and get elected a true small “L” libertarian candidate for president. It would help if some in our sphere of friends got elected to Congress.

—

I was thinking about who I would like to see in the White House in 2008 or 2012. Who meets these requirements? And my thoughts keep coming back to my blogfather Glenn Reynolds for President and for Vice-President I could suggest (grooming her for eight years hence) Rachel Lucas. Folks, we have plenty of years of preparation for this and I really think we can do it. Of course, I also believe I will win the PowerBall lottery tomorrow…

I’ve said for a long time that the only way to get really good people into office anymore is to draft them.

“Greetings! For the next (2, 4, 6) years you will be serving as (Representative, President, Senator). Please report to the Public Office Registration Center by 12:00 on such-and-such date.”

And anybody who actually wants to run for office above City Mayor should be immediately disqualified for mental reasons – they’re either power-hungry or just plain nuts.

But that’ll never happen, so what we have to do is draft the candidates and run a grass-root blogosphere-based campaign.

And hack the vote counting machines.

Great idea, Jeff! I can see the cabinet now!

Eugene Volokh for Attorney General!

Kim du Toit for Secretary of Defense!

Bill Whittle for any damned position he wants!

Who can name the other cabinet candidates?

Poster art! We need poster art! Where’s Cox & Forkum when you need them?

Let’s get this thing rolling!

(You don’t think the puppy-in-a-blender thing will come up during the campaign, do you?)

Update: Triticale recommends

Jane Galt for Commerce

Joanne Jacobs for H.E.W. (I confess, I’m unfamiliar with Ms. Jacobs. Link?)

Emperor Misha I for Homeland Security.

Let’s hear some more!

UPDATED: 10:21PM

Here’s some more recommendations. I WANT FEEDBACK, DAMMIT!

Cabinet:

Agriculture ?

Interior ? Can’t we combine Interior and Homeland Security? Call it “Interior Security” or just plain “National Security”?

Commerce Jane Galt (Don’t know her well enough, myself, but she comes with a recommendation.)

Justice Eugene Volokh

Defense WAR! Donald Sensing – Brilliant, retired marine ARMY (mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!), and a man of the cloth too!

Labor ?

Education Mrs. du Toit – Connie knows education.

State Steven Den Beste – he’ll reason our enemies into insanity! And outthink them at the same time! And clear out the halls of the State Department in favor of people who THINK!

Homeland Security Toss up: Emperor Misha or Kim du Toit – nobody should be able to do it better than a naturalized citizen!

Energy Laurence Simon of Amish Tech Support has been recommended.

Transportation ?

Treasury Mindles H. Dreck from Asymmetrical Information has been nominated.

Health & Human Services Two nominations: Joanne Jacobs and James Lileks. I go for Lileks. If he can manage home and Gnat, its good enough for me!

Housing & Urban Development Can’t we scrap this one?

Veteran’s Affairs Roll this into WAR!

Environmental Protection Agency Scrap this one too.

Office of Management & Budget ? I think Den Beste and Sensing and two or three others ought to combine on this one.

Chief of Staff BILL WHITTLE! (Or maybe just make him head speechwriter?)

Office of Drug Control Policy Another one to scrap.

U.S. Trade Representative ?

Ambassador to the UN The ambassador to the what?

UPDATE! 7/26/03 10:00AM

Jeff at Alphecca recommends Bill Quick of DailyPundit for Press Secretary, and has come up with a campaign slogan already:

ELECT THE GREAT IN 2008!

Scott Ott of Scrappleface has been recommended for Press Secretary, but really, we want to tell the world the truth (only as much as they need to know.) Scott wouldn’t be that different from the various previous Press Secretaries, only more blatant. (But it would be fun!) And Bill Quick gets a nomination for the (useless) position of Ambassador to the UN. I think I’d leave him as Press Secretary.

I’m going to have to build a spreadsheet, aren’t I?

I’ve got one of my own to recommend (a new advisory position?): National Technology Advisor – Eric S. Raymond of Armed and Dangerous.

OK, NOW we’re getting Ambassadorial nominations! Such as Frank J. as Ambassador to France! (Bejus, I LOVE IT!)

Keep ’em coming! This is too good!

As an adjunct to this, one respondent informs me:

I’ve heard Glenn Reynolds has a place in Tahoe. Why not give him a warm up for the White House by electing him Governor of California this October 7?

I’m not sure I’d wish that job on ANYONE.

Fred Pruit of Rantburg has been nominated CIA/NSA director.

Keep ’em coming!

UPDATE: 11:00PM 7/26

I’ve got an IHMSA match to run tomorrow morning, early, but tomorrow afternoon I’ll try to get a comprehensive list of the nominees for each position. And I’ll even include the (immediately disqualified) volunteers. Such as Bill Hobbs who is vying for Press Secretary, too.

UPDATE! @2:15PM I finally got the table of candidates up. Some formatting problems I can’t figure out, but the data is right. WooHoo!

Here’s Something Interesting

Ravenwood covers two items: First the Washington Post’s reaction to Orrin Hatch’s bill to repeal the D.C. gun ban. Money quote:

The best way to dry up this supply of guns would be for Congress to enact a federal law extending the District protections to Maryland, Virginia and all other states.

Which, if you weren’t able to translate that for yourself, Ravenwood puts plainly:

In case you were wondering, by “protections”, they mean “gun ban”, and by “all other states”, they mean yours.

The second item is the reaction by politicians to the NYC City Council shootings, which I recommend you read. But the money quote here is the one I’ve been using all along when it comes to the political fear of the .50BMG rifle:

Of course, you should also ask yourself just what is it that these politicians are doing, that they are so worried about being dragged out of their offices and shot because of it.

Or capped through the armor of their limousines.

Reader Ray dropped a comment below:

So long as the public is stupid enough to think they can get things from the government (politicians) at no cost they will be socialists.

How you stop this is beyond me. This is I believe the root cause of the growth of and infringement by bureaucracy into our lives.

This reminded me again of the quotation, popular among conservative sites, that is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, (1747-1813) Scottish scholar, lawyer, poet and historian who was contemporary with the forming of the United States. (Also often referred to as Alexander Tyler.) I have found no definite link to Lord Woodhouslee for this quotation (and I’ve looked) but what the quotation says is food for thought regardless of its source:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence

From bondage to spiritual faith

From spiritual faith to great courage

From courage to liberty

From liberty to abundance

From abundance to selfishness

From selfishness to complacency

From complacency to apathy

From apathy to dependency

From dependency back again into bondage

The only way to stop it that I know of, Ray, is education. It is possible to teach people that there’s no such thing as “something for nothing.”

And that, I believe, is why our education system has been destroyed.

I GOTTA Get Me One of THESE!

Thanks to Rachel Lucas for the pointer, ThoseShirts.com (maker of my other favorite – the “Celebrate Diversity” shirt) is selling this Cox & Forkum masterpiece on cotton:

Go here to order yours!

More Tinfoil! More Tinfoil!

Well, THIS is interesting. According to sitemeter today I have received visits from:

NIPR.mil (three times)

epa.gov

DIA.mil (twice)

and uscourts.gov

One of those NIPR.mil visits covered 10 pages and took over 24 minutes! (I hope you found it informative.)

Comment sections are open for questions, or you can just e-mail me. (Don’t you guys have to work?)

I’d also like to say Suomi to my visitor from hut.fi and Goede dag to my visitors from xs4all.nl and chello.nl.

To the visitor from gc.ca, I say “Get back to work, hoser!” 🙂

More Evidence That Our Collapsing Schools Aren’t Accidental

Also from Samizdata:

What 1776 was really about?

I have been enjoying the television documentary of the American war of Independence shown over on the BBC (yes, that pinko channel!), presented by military historian Richard Holmes.

Bestriding around the countryside, Holmes is excellent. He even looks the part with his bearing and military moustache – you could imagine him in an army officer’s uniform circa 1940.

During his trip Holmes asked some locals on a bus travelling near Charleston about what the war meant to them. One elderly lady gave an articulate take, arguing about the issues of taxation, representation and liberty. And then he spoke to a young guy, probably in his early 20s, who came out with this gem. I paraphrase slightly:

Well, it was all about rich folks, who just did not want to pay their taxes. If it hadn’t been for them, we’d be British, and enjoy (!) socialised medicine.

So there you have it. Some of the younger American generation wish that George Washington had lost so that all Americans could use the National Health Service.

Don’t know whether to laugh or cry, really.

Neither do I.

Read the comments on this one, too.

More on Tony Martin

Samizdata has this post up concerning the continuing Tony Martin saga. Money quote:

The system is not just broken, it is insane.

Go read. And see where we’re headed.

And don’t miss the comments, either. Toren Smith, on hiatus from The Safety Valve makes this perceptive point:

I’m beginning to think that one of the ways one can judge the degree to which a society has progressed towards a government-controlled police state is to look at the reaction of the police to encroachment on “their turf.” In a free society where the police are truly viewed as the servants and protectors of the citizens, the cops respect the rights of the citizens and see them as partners in the battle against crime. In a place like New York or San Francisco where the government is pressing towards complete control of the citizens, the cops bitterly resent any interference with their monopoly on the use of force and treat all citizens as simply potential criminals. In any citizen-criminal battle, cops in such places are always careful to make sure the citizen doesn’t “get away with it” and even in cases of the most righteous shooting, one can expect charges to be pressed as a warning to other uppity peasants. (Always self-righteously defended, usually along the lines of “we can’t have vigilantes running around on the streets,” as if someone shooting a burglar who broke into their house is the same as some guy hunting down crack pushers as a part time job.) The final corrupt state of such a society can been seen in England, where all pretense has been dropped and citizens who act in a “police-like” manner towards criminals are seen as a much greater threat to the government than the criminals and are thus treated with greater severity than the criminals themselves. The next step is the gulag, although I expect it will make its appearance in a difference guise, perhaps as “sensitivity training facilities” or “community service centers” or some such.

Can you say “Ronald Dixon”? “José Acosta”? “Memphis District Attorney Bill Gibbons”?

I thought you could.

And that argues that the system isn’t insane. This behavior is purposeful.

And I think he’s right.

Do We Have Enough Volunteers to Justify These Restrictions?

If so, I’m glad. If not, Donald Sensing is right to be concerned. However, he does point out some odd and apparently illogical barriers to joining the military.

More government stupidity (redundancy alert!)

More on Scotland and Guns

Just as I expected, the decrease in permit holders in Scotland wasn’t enough – they’re all concerned over the net increase in legally owned guns. According to this report:

Concern over guns amid rise in sale of firearms

THE number of legally held firearms in Scotland has risen over the past 12 months amid police warnings that bona fide weapons are continuing to fall into the wrong hands.

Four days after a constable was critically wounded in a shotgun attack in a Glasgow police station, it has emerged there are now 60,599 legally held handguns in Scotland, an increase of 2.5 per cent.

First point, that’s got to be an (innocent?) error. Handguns are banned in Scotland, just as they are in England. I believe the author meant 60,599 legally held shotguns. According to the earlier story there are just under 80,000 firearm and shotgun certificates in Scotland. The overwhelming majority of long arms in the UK are shotguns. Question: Was the shotgun used in the attack legally owned?

The latest figures reveal that, although fewer firearms certificates were issued last year, more guns were purchased by licensed owners than in 2001. The same Scottish Executive report has also revealed that the number of registered firearms dealers has risen for the first time since 1994, to 285.

Last night, the deputy justice minister, Hugh Henry, admitted he was concerned, but added that he was heartened that the number of certificates issued has continued to fall.

In other words, “Our plans for completely disarming the law-abiding are progressing nicely, though we wish we could do it faster.”

He said: “We must continue to highlight the dangers posed by guns and other weapons and ensure that the bare minimum (Read: “ZERO”) are held in our communities. The majority of people in Scotland continue to show a sensible and responsible attitude to the ownership of these weapons, (Read: “They think guns are icky and gun owners are slavering murderers – unless, of course, the gun owner is a government employee.”) and are working with the police to ensure that we maintain the progress made since tightening the regulations on gun ownership.” (Read: “They’re turning in their neighbors for any violation of the law that will result in revocation of their firearm permits, just like good little peons should.”)

On Sunday night, long-serving policeman, PC John Cunningham, was shot while he was on duty on the front desk of Shettleston Police Station, Glasgow.

A Strathclyde Police source expressed concern at the increase in guns under private ownership. The source said: “There are obviously very strict laws surrounding gun ownership, but the reality is that legitimate guns often become targets for serious criminals and they can fall into the wrong hands during burglaries.”

Of course, if the bad guys can’t get a shotgun, the market in suppressed Uzi’s is, I understand, pretty good.

The number of people caught carrying offensive weapons, knives in particular, has risen dramatically across the country in the past four years.

Well, if I lived where owning a firearm for self-defense was illegal, and shotgun-toting criminals felt safe enough to blast a cop at the police station, I might give serious consideration to carrying something with which to defend myself. “Better judged by twelve than carried by six” so the saying goes.

According to the latest figures from the Scottish Executive, the number of people caught with dangerous weapons on Scotland’s streets rose by 18 per cent between 1998 and 2002 with the number of people caught with knives rising almost 30 per cent over the same period.

The SNP justice spokeswoman, Nicola Sturgeon, accused the Executive of not making public safety a key priority. She said: “The fact is that the amount of cases of people caught carrying a blade in public has gone up by nearly 30 per cent and the hard reality is that every single one of these cases has the potential to cause a fatal injury. These figures are totally unacceptable.”

Responding to the increase in arrests for possession of dangerous weapons, a Scottish Executive spokesman claimed it was simply a direct result of successful policing. He said: “While any increase in any type of crime is a concern it is true to say that the increase in the reporting of crimes involving knives and offensive weapons has been, at least in part, a result of recent sustained police efforts to tackle the culture of violence.”

Ah, yes, the “culture of violence” – that they think they can control by banning weapons. Hasn’t worked too well, has it? So let’s try it some more, only harder, eh?