Category Archives: Social Commentary

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Carrying A Gun

11 Comments

…”saved my life“:

Could proposed restrictions on magazines greater than 10 rounds endanger ordinary people caught in situations like the one you faced?

There is definitely a risk involved with arbitrarily limiting normal citizens to ten rounds (or seven in the case of New York). Statistics generally indicate multiple shots being required to stop a single threat regardless of caliber, and there is almost always a degradation of accuracy in a high-stress situation.

If someone is unfortunate enough to be in a self-defense situation with three or four attackers, the difference between ten rounds and thirteen (or twenty) could mean the difference between life and death.

The only person qualified to determine what you need for your own defense is you.

[Update a couple minutes later]

I agree that Glenn’s headline for this story is much more accurate:

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre and Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who survived a shot to the head two years ago during an assassination attempt that left six people dead, are among those slated to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. One congressional source tells CBS News that Giffords herself is expected to attend the hearing; she is expected to accompany her husband and address the committee, although she’s not expected to take questions.

Unfortunately, being shot (or being a former astronaut) doesn’t make one an expert on guns or their use for self defense. This is about emotionalism, not a rational informed debate.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

The Columbia Disaster

10 Comments

The latest issue of Space Safety Magazine is dedicated to it. I disagree with Andrea’s take here, though:

The focus of commercial space is very much on cost-cutting, while vague assurances are made about safer vehicles. Sometimes safety is even presented as a stubborn obstacle to industry development and progress [I plead guilty as charged – RS]. The commercial human spaceflight industry needs to remember that the primary goal of the Shuttle Program was cutting the cost of transportation to orbit by an order of magnitude, a goal at which it failed miserably. As with the supersonic Concorde, the Shuttle was doomed by being both expensive and unsafe. Being expensive made it in turn unaffordable to undertake any further development or safety modification. But even being expensive to operate did not stop either the Shuttle or Concorde from operating for about 30 years. What ultimately ended these programs was their inadequate safety.

Probably true for Concorde, but not for Shuttle. As I write in the book: Continue reading The Columbia Disaster →

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

James Lovelock

2 Comments

Environmental heretic:

We never intended a fundamentalist Green movement that rejected all energy sources other than renewable, nor did we expect the Greens to cast aside our priceless ecological heritage because of their failure to understand that the needs of the Earth are not separable from human needs. We need take care that the spinning windmills do not become like the statues on Easter Island, monuments of a failed civilisation.

What he doesn’t (or at least didn’t) understand is that they want civilization, and humanity itself, to fail.

Business, Economics, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Another Road

3 Comments

The Blue elites are wrong:

It is easy to see how rational people can conclude that the only hope of preserving mass prosperity in America comes from transfers and subsidies. If we add to this the belief that only a powerful and intrusive regulatory state can prevent destructive climate change, then the case for the blue utopia looks ironclad. To save the planet, save the middle class and provide American minorities and single mothers with the basic elements of an acceptable life, we must set up a far more powerful federal government than we have ever known, and give it sweeping powers over the production and distribution of wealth.

But what if this isn’t true? What if the shift from a late-stage industrial economy to an information economy has a different social effect? What if the information revolution continues and even accelerates the democratization of political, social and cultural life by empowering ordinary people? What if the information revolution, like the industrial revolution, ultimately leads to a radical improvement in the way ordinary people live and opens up vast new horizons of human potential and freedom?

Obviously nobody knows what the future holds, and anything anybody says about the social consequences of the information revolution is mostly conjecture; still, the elegantly paternalistic pessimism of our elites about the future of the masses seems both defeatist and overdone. The information revolution, one should never forget, may be disruptive but more fundamentally it is good news. Human productivity is rising dramatically. If the bad news is that fewer and fewer people will earn a living working in factories, the good news is that a smaller and smaller percentage of the time and energy of the human race must be devoted to the manufacture of the material objects we need for daily life. Just as it’s good news overall when agricultural productivity increases and the majority of the human race no longer has to spend its time providing food, it’s good news when we as a species can free ourselves from the drudgery and monotony of factory work.

Good news is bad news for people who don’t like (other people to have) freedom. They need a crisis to not waste.

Humor, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

An Idiotic Gun Buyback

5 Comments

…turns into a gun show:

Police stood in awe as gun enthusiasts and collectors waved wads of cash for the guns being held by those standing in line for the buyback program.

People that had arrived to trade in their weapons for $100 or $200 BuyBack gift cards($100 for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and $200 for assault weapons) soon realized that gun collectors were there and paying top dollar for collectible firearms. So, as the line for the chump cards got longer and longer people began to jump ship and head over to the dealers.

John Diaz, Seattle’s Police Chief, wasn’t pleased with the turn of events, stating “I’d prefer they wouldn’t sell them,” but admitted it’s perfectly legal for private individuals to buy and sell guns, FOR NOW.

For now.

Hilarious. And yes, I know that “idiotic gun buyback” is redundant.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Just to compound the idiocy, a commenter points out:

What a deal. Way better deal than the pawn shop. You can report your gun stolen. Then bring it in for buy back and get your gift card (no questions asked, right?). Then the police return it to you. What a brilliant use of Seattle’s money.

Brilliant indeed.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Skeet Shooting

8 Comments

I’d pay money to watch this:

“If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn’t he referenced this at any point in time?” Blackburn said Monday on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“I tell you what I do think,” she later added. “I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I’ll go skeet shooting with him and I bet I’ll beat him.”

Everyone out there who believes that Barack Obama shoots skeet, raise your hands.

Gee, I don’t feel much of a breeze from all the uplifted arms.

Bob Beckel asked a stupid (or misleading) question on The Five yesterday. “If the president wants to demonize gun owners, why is he saying he’s a likes to shoot guns?”

He wants to demonize people who use politically incorrect guns. You don’t shoot skeet with AR-15s (well, you could, but I don’t think it’s allowed in competition). He’s pretending he’s one of us (see, I like to shoot stuff, too!), while continuing the stupid attack on “assault weapons” (“I can have fund and, per Joe Biden, defend myself with a shotgun. That’s all that anyone should “need”).

Later, after we’re disarmed of the most militarily effective weapons, they’ll come after the shotguns. They play the long game.

[Update a while later]

Sadly, this seems relevant.

Trains Run On Time

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Moral Disarmament

3 Comments

How our kids are being indoctrinated against the Constitution:

In a child’s imagination, a thumb and forefinger make a handy play gun. Some adults, however, see a fully cocked finger and their imaginations run wild. Maybe they imagine today’s finger-pointer coming back one day as a homicidal maniac and pointing a real gun at them. Maybe they see a future NRA member — another threat to their dream of a gun-free world. It’s obvious they don’t see a cop protecting them from robbers, or a soldier from our country’s enemies.

Punishing kids for finger guns has nothing to do with school safety; they know the difference between a finger and a gun as well as adults do. It has everything to do with “moral disarmament.”

What’s more, the idea of using schools as conditioning grounds is not new. Thomas Sowell discusses it at length in his 2009 book “Intellectuals and Society.” After the horrors of World War I, intellectuals of the time determined that “war” and “weapons,” not other nations, were the real enemies. They promoted both military disarmament and “disarming of the mind.”

And didn’t that work out well.

More and more, sending kids to public school seems to constitute child abuse.