…are almost sadistically unhealthy places to send adolescents.
The only problem I had in high school was no girlfriends. I had lots of friends who were girls, though.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
Free Will
Do we really have it? Do we need it?
“Acting Alone”
The idea that you’re “alone” unless you’re being directed by the government strikes me as dehumanizing and almost abusive. So I resist this scare tactic of presenting the government as the alternative to being “alone.”
Actually, fallacy is too kind a word for it. It’s a false-choice straw man, and a lie.
AR-15s
Imagining ourselves in a high-stress, violent situation, we want a gun with enough ammo, and more, to get the job done. Sometimes, you only get one shot. At other times, you may need more. When you don’t have time to reload in the heat of a home invasion, the AR-15’s 30-round magazine gives you the flexibility and security a handgun will not.
High-capacity magazines serve as a life-saving insurance mechanism, a self-defense back-up if something doesn’t go according to plan. Yet you would never think of these guns in this sense by listening to anti-gun zealots and their allies in media.
Assault rifles and high-capacity magazines have been under fire from our nation’s legislators since the Newtown massacre. It only took Senator Dianne Feinstein two days to announce her intention to reinstate the Clinton-era assault-weapons ban to get “these dangerous weapons of war off our streets.” New York governor Andrew Cuomo took it upon himself to make his state the first to tighten gun laws post-Newtown, proudly outlawing magazines over seven rounds because “no one needs ten bullets to kill a deer.”
Senator Feinstein and Governor Cuomo: We may not need ten bullets to kill a deer, but we sure need them in our own defense. Criminals rarely use assault rifles. Nearly ten times as many murders are committed with hammers and clubs, and 35 times as many with knives. Does that mean we need to ban those too, Senator Feinstein? Banning assault weapons will only take weapons away from my house — not from criminals on the street.
God made man and woman. Sam Colt made them equal.
Of course, it’s not really about keeping them away from criminals, unless you consider free men and women who might thwart your plans for them to be inherently criminals.
Jared Diamond’s New Book
Kori Schake isn’t impressed.
Doctors And Guns
Why doctors shouldn’t ask their patients about them, let alone be required by the government to do so.
Obama’s Position On Gay Marriage
Not that that distinguishes it from any other topic on which he discourses.
The Human Spaceflight Cargo Cult
This is strongly related to my concept of the Apollo cargo cult. If we want to justify humans in space, we have to stop using the word “exploration,” because it simply raises the issue of letting robots do it. Talking instead about space development and particularly settlement implies humans, by definition. And if we can’t persuade the taxpayers that those are worthwhile goals, and instead try to sell them a bill of goods, then we don’t deserve taxpayer money for our hobbies. And cults.
Switching To Android
I’ve never been an Apple fan, partly because it seems like a cult, and partly because I’ve never liked their closed business model. It may finally be starting to bite them, for all but the True Believers. And perhaps their faith has been shaken by the loss of the cult leader.
Gun Clubs At Schools
As Glenn notes, this is about oikophobia, even though it’s as, or more, important for kids to learn about the proper use and handling of guns as it is for them to learn to drive, particularly considering that the former is a fundamental constitutional right. As Glenn notes, this insane “gun-free zone” and “zero tolerance” policies have been a horrific failure.
I wonder if drum and bugle corps still carry the wooden rifles, as they did when I was in high school? Or is that too “terroristic“? More and more, it seems like sending your kids to a public school constitutes parental malpractice.
[Update a few minutes later]
Why are anti-gun activists so violent? as Glenn says, maybe the people we need to keep guns away from are elected Democrats.
[Update a few more minutes later]
Related: the loving, tolerant Left:
Over the last few years, I’ve heard the left talk about how hateful conservatives can be. Being a libertarian, there have been plenty of occasions where I disagreed with conservatives in discussions on social issues, but I’ve never at any moment gotten to the point where they were berating me or wishing harm upon me.
Needless to say, I’m strongly considering sending this one to the police since the e-mail address, which I’ve left off the post, is from a legitimate account.
They don’t want us to have guns because they project and think that we’re as violent and deranged as they are.