Congratulations, Nicki!
Nicki Fellenzer of The Liberty Zone is now the proud possessor of a Master’s Degree in National Security Studies.
Too bad the current administration doesn’t think we need anyone with that qualification.
Tag: linkery
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
In 1920, England was the safest industrialized society on Earth. In fact, it was by far the safest society of any sort on Earth. Through a series of gun control laws, England has become by far the most violent society on Earth.
Australia’s politicians were so eager to follow England’s lead that they let a certifiably insane man loose – and gave him his guns back. When the shots stopped, 35 people were dead and 21 were wounded. Today, Oz is clearly the second most violent industrialized society on Earth.
Now, New Zealand wants to get in on the fun. Their politicians are changing the rules for firearms possession, making it harder to keep and bear arms. That will make criminals feel safer, with the inevitable increase in violent crime. Which will result in a demand for more “gun controls.” And finally New Zealand will most likely be in the same situation England and Australia were in before it.
— Extranos Alley – Defining Insanity
It’s not just the gun control laws. In the case of the Anglosphere, gun control is just one of the symptoms of a flawed philosophy that forces its people to spiral down an ever-more-dangerous path of compelled helplessness.
This philosophy was perhaps best expressed recently by James Bowman (author, I believe, of Honor: A History) in a Weekly Standard piece from April, Harm’s Way: The roads in Britain are paved with good intention, itself a review of Theodore Dalrymple’s (pen name of Anthony Daniels) latest book Not with a Bang but a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline. In it, Bowman excerpts a bit from the book, and then expands:
The many hypocrisies and deceptions on which the New Labour coalition was built are typified by the system of criminal justice with which, in his prison job, Daniels had an intimate acquaintance. Citing the work of a whistle-blowing policeman named David Fraser, he compares the British police to
a nearly defeated occupying colonial force that, while mayhem reigns everywhere else, has retreated to safe enclaves, there to shuffle paper and produce bogus information to propitiate its political masters. Their first line of defense is to refuse to record half the crime that comes to their attention, which itself is less than half the crime committed. Then they refuse to investigate recorded crime, or to arrest the culprits even when it is easy to do so and the evidence against them is overwhelming, because the prosecuting authorities will either decline to prosecute, or else the resultant sentence will be so trivial as to make the whole procedure (at least nineteen forms to fill in after a single arrest) pointless.
The real question is, why isn’t this clearly appalling state of affairs a scandal in Britain? I think the answer is that the media consensus there–and to a large extent here–includes certain core principles, such as that crime is caused by something other than criminals and that imprisonment is society’s shame, rather than that of the incarcerated, which can only be protected by maintaining these hypocrisies and deceptions, and with them, the illusion that nothing can be done about most crime. Therefore, the media are complicit in pretending that these problems don’t exist–because they shouldn’t exist.
(My emphasis.) And along with that comes the inability to differentiate between “violent and predatory” and “violent but protective.”
And that’s insanity.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Once again, a break from education quotes and a new one from House of Eratosthenes:
What is The Truth that people figure out? That some 30 percent of us already know, and that more and more of us learn as we debate back and forth on the latest “gimme”? Simply this: That the government doesn’t really have money; it spends only what it has taken from others, plus what it borrows on the credit of others. Which naturally means that one man’s “right” is another man’s burden. That when we debate these proposals, we aren’t debating how to make life more secure, we are in fact debating how to make our country less free.
Which is why there is such urgency to pass massive spending bills without debate, review, or even reading them – because they have to get it done before too many people figure out this Truth, and get massively PISSED OFF.
Holy Moly, There Really WAS a ‘Wild West Shootout’
Holy Moly, There Really WAS a ‘Wild West Shootout’!
From various sources, Curt of Captain of a Crew of One relates the story of a real-live Virginia-City Wild West Shootout!
Of course, it’s not exactly the kind that meets the requirements for Ravenwood’s Law.
UPDATE: More detailed information on the incident at the Penn. Firearms Owner’s Association message board. Just . . . damn.
Quote of the Day
And this one’s not from John Taylor Gatto’s The Underground History of American Education for a change:
I understand good manners involve one side acting completely guilty and the other side acting completely innocent. I understand the protocol expected is for the righty-tighty to leap, chest-downward, on the grenade. I understand the expectation is to repeat the scene where Tom Sawyer gets the whipping so Becky whats-her-name’s glorious butt cheeks remain unscathed. I get all that.
I’m just tired of doing it. It comes down to something very simple. ONLY LIBERALS CAN PRESENT “FACTS” WITHOUT BECOMING EVIL. — House of Eratosthenes, “Tired of the Charade, Pretending it’s My Problem”
The topic was economics rather than guns and gun laws, but the principle is precisely the same. Some more:
I’m tired of ignoring the elephant in the room, and the elephant in the room is this: The abrasive thing I did was to present factual evidence incompatible with the desirable trope. I presented some hard numbers that would compel a newcomer to at least remain open to an alternative point of view. That was my infraction. And I’m tired of pretending otherwise. Did I mention how tired I am of it?
Quote of the Day
Mr. Corti opines
‘If you can’t defend what’s yours, where are we at?’
I’d say you were in the UK. – Robb Allen, When the Will is Present
RIP, Acidman
Three years ago today, Rob “Acidman” Smith passed away from a pulmonary embolism.
Just, damn.
Three years ago, I wrote this:
I’ve been reading Acidman since about the time I discovered the blogosphere. I started this blog just so I could debate one of Rob’s commenters on the topic of gun control.
Say what you want about Rob, he didn’t pull any punches. He said what he meant, meant what he said, and took no shit from anybody. I admire and respect that. It was fascinating watching the ongoing train wreck that was often his life, and I feel for both Sam (his daughter) and Quinton (son from his second wife “the bloodless cunt”), and especially for his Grandmother. Outliving your children is one thing. Outliving your grandchildren must be especially hard.
Rest in peace, Acidman. If there’s an afterlife, I hope yours is a lot like Costa Rica, with sweet nubile women, a working Roscoe, and all the good food, good beer, and good company you could ever want.
I still get an occasional visitor from Rob’s archives. Per his request, Gut Rumbles is still up, and his past posts are rotated around the front page.
It’s really kind of odd, but I “know” more people through the internet who have died than I know personally who have. Cathy Siepp in March of 2007. AR15.com prolific poster “Eric the (fill in the blank) Hun.” Airboss. Christiana Hendrix, wife of Mike Hendrix of Cold Fury. I’m sure there are more, but those come immediately to mind.
Yesterday both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died, earlier this week Ed McMahon passed. I took a look at Rob’s archives to see what he had to say about them. Nothing on Farrah or Ed, but he had quite a bit to say about Michael:
In MY humble opinion, Michael Jackson is a great performer but one of the most fucked-up human beings (if he’s even human anymore) on the face of the planet. Look at what the confused bastard has done to himself through plastic surgery over the years. He resembles a goddam ALIEN, for crying out loud.
He is a weird dude.
He can sing, he can dance and he can entertain. I don’t know why he couldn’t be happy with those abilities looking just the way he did when he was born. I am not nearly the good-looking guy I was when I was 26 years old. Years of bar-life, shiftwork, hard-drinking and hard-living have taken a toll on me. My hair is gray silver, my beard is the same color and I don’t have the same sparkle in my eyes that I did 25 years ago.
But I remain pretty much who I was back then.
And he remained that way to the end, I think.
Michael Jackson is one fucked-up individual, but I believe that the people going after his ass for child molestation are more fucked-up than he is.
—
I dreamed that I played basketball with Michael Jordan last night. I was proud, and I remember thinking in the locker room after the game, when Mike shook my hand, “I have played with THE VERY BEST, and I didn’t embarrass myself.” I regretted waking up from that one.
When I start dreaming about Michael Jackson, someone drag me off and shoot me.
—
What do YOU think is an erotic fruit? (and any reply containing the name of Michael Jackson WILL be deleted.)
—
Is Michael Jackson a pedophile? I don’t know, but I DO KNOW what he’s guilty of. He’s different. In fact, that crazy bastard is downright ALIEN if you look at what he’s done to himself over the years.
But that shit doesn’t make him a criminal.
People are always too eager to jump on ANYBODY who is “different.” I know that fact because I’ve been different for my entire life. Individuals suffer when they don’t join the mob.
Think back to high school. You needed to wear the “right” clothes, hang around the “cool” people or face scorn and ostrascism. I tried that shit for a while, until I realized that MY worth wasn’t what some fucking spoiled teenager said it was.
Being different is no crime. But being different WILL bring you a lot of grief in life. Just try it and see if a mob doesn’t come after you.
They will. They always have, too. Just read history.
Like I said, Rob didn’t pull any punches. He said what he meant, meant what he said, and took no shit from anybody.
I still miss the guy.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
(S)ome of you have already encountered Markadelphia, who essentially functions as Kevin’s reactive target range. – LabRat, I’ll Eat Fish and I’ll Eat Meat, But There’s Some Shit I Will Not Eat
Read the whole thing. And most definitely read her latest rant in the comments! LabRat at full voice is unbottled awesomesauce.
You’re Gonna Smoke a Turd in Hell for That
Cowboy Blob says goodbye to our three most recent big names who have passed on, in the way only he can. (*Snerk!*)
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
In contrast to yesterday’s:
As the fascist government of Iran begins the massacre of its unarmed citizens today, the world slowly, fitfully wakes to the reality of what it means to have a weakling in Washington.
—
Now he has the job and the enemies of America and freedom have taken his measure. And today the dying started. Only the beginning, folks. Only the beginning.
The only prediction left to me is when the dying will start here. As usual, it’s later than we think.
Gerard Van Der Leun, American Digest: Surprise! No Steel in Obama’s Spine After All.