New Covenant

So you want to see some sermons?

This coming Sunday, every Bible believing pastor, priest, and rabbi in the U.S. should preach on what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, and then send a copy of their sermon (anonymously) to the city of Houston. #AnniseParker #Houston #BathroomBill #FirstAmendment

The citizen, the 2nd Amendment, and the government

Over at the LA Times, George Skelton has written an op-ed titled, Dorner case shows folly of arming oneself to combat government, in which he argues how the Dorner outcome demonstrates the futility of armed resistance to the government. Unfortunately, he does nothing more than demonstrate a lack of coherent reasoning and understanding of the issue at hand.

To begin with, what exactly is his understanding of what the "government" is? He states,

The nutty notion that a citizen can be heavily enough armed to fight off the government went up in smoke near Big Bear Lake.

Huh? And all this time I thought, to reference Abe Lincoln, that our government was of the people, by the people, and for the people. Silly me. They, are us. Regardless, what's up with the claim that 2nd Amendment advocates believe that it means that "a citizen" is pitted against "the government"? Weren't the Bill of Rights expressely written to delineate how the citizens (note: plural) are protected from the government? Oh, and in the case of the Bill of Rights, I do believe "the government" refers to those duly elected representatives of the people. Seems that at least some of the founding fathers were aware of the intoxicating aspects of power (even when representatives are duly elected), and the need to restrain abuse of said power, via the Constitution.

Yet the notion that an armed citizenry would engage in self-defense against a tyrannical government is, evidently, patently absurd to Skelton. He states,

And there are many [e-mails he's received] like Bryan, who asked: "What if the German Jews had been well armed" against Hitler?

My answer: They would have been slaughtered by the Nazi Panzer divisions.

Maybe Skelton isn't aware of this, but the Nazis slaughtered 6,000,000 Jews anyway. Maybe he also is unaware that in the late 1930s the Nazis prevented Jews from owning firearms. Is it really that difficult to figure this out? If you were a Jew in Europe in the 1930s, and given the choice, would you have rather been unarmed or well armed? Would you have rather silently watched as you and your family were hauled off to a ghetto, and then exterminated in a concentration camp, or would you have wanted the chance and dignity to at least fight for what you could? Is Skelton so immune to the notion of self and family defense that he can't see this?

Again, he states,

The French and Poles were well armed. How'd that work out?

Sigh. Is he not aware of the French and Polish Resistance movements? Does he honestly think that their resistance was not, at the very least, a thorn in the side of the Nazi presence in France and Poland? Would he rather their movements have had no firearms whatsoever?

What is scary, though, is how Skelton seems to imply that we, as citizens of the United States, are nothing more than subjects of the government (and whatever police force said government employs). In his world we must bow down and acquiesce to whatever the government says or does simply for the fact that we would surely lose were we to get into a real shoot-em-up battle with said government. This, of course, is because we are outgunned due to the fact that, as he states, the 2nd Amendment has been violated with our rights currently being infringed.

And, again,

Dorner could have read up on Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge. Or the Branch Davidians near Waco.

Yes, look it up. Randy Weaver's wife Sara was shot and killed by a government sniper as she was doing the dastardly deed of holding her 10 month-old son. And we are all aware (or should be aware) of the deadly and bungled fiasco in Waco, as perpetrated by Bill Clinton's AG Janet Reno. Is this the type of government that Skelton wishes us to simply acquiesce to?

And while Skelton may argue that an armed citizenry is useless against the full force of the government, because of what happened to one armed crazy by the name of Christopher Dorner, he continues to miss the point. Yes, Dorner lost - that was inevitable. Yet look at what he - one person - was able to do or cause before his death: four murders, two of which were on civilians, other individuals wounded by either him or local law enforcement (including one 71 year-old lady), two innocent person's vehicles wrongly shot up by local law enforcement, one innocent person's house burned to the ground by local law enforcement(intentionally, it is claimed), as well as the allocation of extensive resources in and around southern California dedicated solely to his apprehension.

All this because of one crazed individual. And yet, this travesty is a prime example of the right and need for law abiding citizens to own firearms in the United States. Why? Because firearms are already owned by some 100,000,000 people in the U.S. That number, when correlated with the impact just one armed law breaking individual can have, sheds light on the true nature of law abiding firearm owning citizens - their concern for safety, self defense, and committment to following the rule of law. 

A government truly of, by, and for the people has nothing to fear from its armed citizens. Nothing to fear at all.

Links for Monday, 28 January 2013

Gun Safety (TRUE gun safety) Edition

A PS!DF* Story
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke issues a PSA for the citizens he's pledged to protect. However, unlike the "let's dump all guns in the ocean" utopian dreams some keep dreaming, he has a slightly different, and extremely more rational, approach. From the PSA,

With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You could beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back. But are you prepared? Consider taking a certified safety course and having firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family.

* Pound Sand! Dianne Feinstein

###

86 firearms for every 100 Americans
And yet the U.K. has a higher violent crime per capita rate.

The Huffington Post offers the infographic under the presumption that this is a bad thing. Yet they don't offer an overall look at violent crime rates, much less defensive gun uses, on a per capita worldwide basis.

From Townhall's Katie Pavlich,

Pretty good national defense strategy, eh? As long as we have the Second Amendment, the United States will never be invaded.

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Tiananmen Square Activist has something to say about the 2nd Amendment
From his speech,

To me, a rifle is not for sporting or hunting. It is an instrument of freedom. It guarantees that I cannot be coerced, that I have free will, that I am a free man.

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Back in 2010 India armed girls to fight militants

A true example of the word 'empowering'.

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And yet another PS!DF* story
With law enforcement officers out there who actually get it - who actually believe in the right of the citizenry to defend themselves - who actually believe the 2nd Amendment means what it says, it will make Federal gun control and/or gun ban legislation difficult to enforce.

This story is of Georgia Sheriff Scott Berry. From Gun Rights Examiner,

Dana Safety Supply [DSS], a well known police supplier of clothing, guns, and gear, with an outlet in Sugar Hill, Georgia, sells firearms to non-police officers. Recently, however, it announced that it would stop selling self loading rifles to anybody but "Law Enforcement individuals." ...What this means is that Dana Safety Supply will no longer sell an AR15 rifle unless the purchaser is a police officer. This new policy has ruffled the feathers of Georgia citizens who buy guns, many of whom declared that they will no longer hand their money over to Dana Safety Supply. One of those citizens is Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry...

Sheriff Berry sent DSS the following letter,

Sirs,

It is my understanding that you have stopped selling self loading rifles to members of the general public in favor of selling them to law enforcement officers only. I deeply regret that decision. As such, this agency will no longer seek bids from or purchase from DSS.

Here's a video of an interview with Sheriff Berry, done by FoxBusiness. Note, especially, the following comments by the good Sheriff,

Fox:  Explain to me why you made this decision. [to no longer purchase from DSS]

Berry:  Well it's real simple. If law abiding citizens in my county can't go there and buy - a legal to obtain - rifle, that they're entitled to buy and they have the money to pay for, then I'm not going to spend their tax money there, and I'm not going to spend my personal money there.

 

Lastly, as noted by Armed American Radio, note the gun control thinking questions that are asked by FoxBusiness.

* Pound Sand! Dianne Feinstein

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Youth Education Summit
Sponsored by the NRA.

Forty-five outstanding current high school sophomores and juniors from across the United States are chosen each year to travel to the nation’s capital, where they participate in the weeklong educational opportunity. The summit encourages young adults to become active and knowledgeable U.S. citizens by learning about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the federal government, and the importance of being active in civic affairs.

 

 

Dianne Feinstein is disgraceful

Dianne Feinstein is disgraceful. She is also un-patriotic.

Why is she disgraceful? It's no secret that she's anti-2nd Amendment. In this interview from 2009, when asked about her reinstating an assault weapon [sic] ban in America she stated the following,

"I'll pick the time and the place, no question about that."

Well, there's no question about the fact that she's picked the time and the place - and it's now. Her gun ban press conference was held today, just barely over a month since the tragic mass killing at Sandy Hook elementary school. She's certainly not letting a crisis go to waste by playing on the emotions generated by the senseless killing of those 20 children. Yet by picking this time and place she is, in fact, dancing in the blood of the murderded children in Newtown.

She is disgraceful.*

Why is she un-patriotic? Her interests in banning guns go beyond the so-called assault weapons she displayed at the press conference (yet another play on the emotions leftover from Sandy Hook). In this interview from 1995 she flat out states she wants to take away ALL firearms from ALL Americans.

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States,  - for an outright ban - picking up every one of them - 'Mr. and Mrs. America? Turn 'em all in,' I would've done it."

Turn 'em all in? Has she never heard of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution? What is it about the right to keep and bear arms not being infringed upon by the government that she doesn't understand?

She is un-patriotic.

* Other indicators of her being disgraceful: Having a Reverend lead a prayer to open her gun banning news conference (no separation of church and state here, I suppose). Fear mongering the gun lobby as the problem. Using "scary looking" guns as props in her news conference. Including the Bushmaster AR-15 (used in Newtown) as a prop at her news conference.

On the supposed machismo-complex gun owners have

In many of the debates / flat-out-arguments regarding gun control, recently, it's been interesting to see how some anti-2nd Amendment folk trot out the notion that gun owners who claim self defense as the basis for their right to own firearms must have some gender inferiority complex. What are you compensating for?, is the Dr. Phil-ish question that explains what these misguided gun owners are suffering from. Essentially, advocates of gun control claim that the supposed need for having firearms is inexorably linked to the fabrication of an essence, be it ever so false, of manhood. 

Maybe they have a point. If I own firearms for self / family defense then what exactly am I compensating for? Well, I'll tell you what:  

Among other things, I'm compensating for the 6'-4", 225 pound, 25 year-old thug who, after breaking into my home, would not think twice about shooting me in the head (or stabbing me or clubbing me) regardless of whether I was armed or complied with his demands. I'm compensating for the multiple assailants who, after training in prison*, would not think twice about slitting my throat, raping my family, and then strangling them to death. I'm compensating for the inevitability of civil unrest given a natural or man-made disaster in the metropolitan area I live in. And I'm compensating for the sheep-like mentality you display, insuring that your such departures from reality will not inhibit my right to defend the lives of those I hold dear to my heart.

In the meantime, let's take a look at some stories which illustrate that there are many women who seem to have taken to "compensation", regardless of whether they suffer from the gender-complex issues that gun grabber psychoanalysts say they do. And, as a sidenote, notice that not all defensive gun uses (DGUs) involved actually firing the weapon.

15 Million women "pack heat" in the US

And that was in 2011. From the article,

One mother named Elena who lives in Roseburg, Ore., explains how her job as a 911 dispatcher led her to overcome the discomfort she felt about owning a gun.

“Dealing with the calls that we field on a daily basis made me really aware of what people are capable of doing,” Elena writes. “I’m a single mom and I’ve got two kids, so I feel like if I’m ever put in a situation where I need to protect them, I’d prefer to have a gun.

Gun-toting Grandma pulls handgun on two men who tried to rob her

More women using guns for fun and protection

From the article,

Several factors are driving women to the gun range, experts say.

"The first and foremost reason is women no longer want to feel vulnerable," Parsons says. "They want to feel responsible for their own personal safety and the safety of their families. Just by their physical size, the perpetrator is going to be bigger and stronger. A firearm is the great equalizer."

More and more women...

From the article,

To those who say guns are masculine, Ellanson says, "It would depend on how you define femininity. I think a capable woman is the most feminine expression of power that there is."

15 year-old girl scares burglars (note - plural) with dad's... gun

From the article,

Officials said a teen in Texas City was alone when a pair of intruders broke into her family's house, but she turned the tables on the suspects by grabbing her father's handgun.

911 is a joke

In Detroit. From the article, 

The people of Detroit are taking no prisoners.

Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies.

More women... 

From the article,

More women throughout the United States are buying guns and learning how to use them. And we're finding that to be true in South Dakota. In fact, a 2011 Gallup Poll found that 43% of women say there's a gun in their home. KSFY's Courtney Zieller is finding out why numbers are at a new high.

21 year-old woman shoots and kills intruder who kicked in her door

Oh, and at least one of the intruders was armed with a gun. From the article,

Tweets sent from the official Dallas Police Department Twitter account said two suspects kicked in the door of the home at about 11:30 a.m. The resident was alone upstairs and heard the noise. She confronted the two burglars as they ascended the stairs and shot at them several times.

The two ran out the front door and one collapsed from a gunshot wound. Police later recovered a gun at the scene, "indicating at least one of the suspects was armed." Nobody has been identified.

12 year-old girl shoots intruder

Yeah, this one kicked his way in as well. From the article,

A 12-year-old girl took matters into her own hands during a home invasion in southeast Oklahoma.

It happened on Wednesday when the girl was home alone. She told police a stranger rang the doorbell, then went around to the back door and kicked it in. She called her mom, Debra St. Clair, who told her to get the family gun, hide in a closet and call 911.

 

* Not based on my own knowledge but as related by a retired LA County Sheriff and a current LAPD Police Officer.

Links for Monday, 31 December 2012

Exporting the "old and sick" to another place 

But don't worry - I'm sure it's for "the common good."

From The Guardian,

Growing numbers of elderly and sick Germans are being sent overseas for long-term care in retirement and rehabilitation centres because of rising costs and falling standards in Germany.

...

...with increasing numbers of Germans unable to afford the growing costs of retirement homes, and an ageing and shrinking population, the number expected to be sent abroad in the next few years is only likely to rise. Experts describe it as a "time bomb".

...

Germany has one of the fastest-ageing populations in the world, and the movement here has implications for other western countries, including Britain, particularly amid fears that austerity measures and rising care costs are potentially undermining standards of residential care.

Something to think about as we travers the road towards nationalized healthcare. 

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The Last Radicals
From the National Review,

There is exactly one authentically radical social movement of any real significance in the United States, and it is not Occupy, the Tea Party, or the Ron Paul faction. It is homeschoolers, who, by the simple act of instructing their children at home, pose an intellectual, moral, and political challenge to the government-monopoly schools, which are one of our most fundamental institutions and one of our most dysfunctional.

The author contends that opponents to homeschoolers have three core reasons.

The first is that progressives by their nature do not trust people as individuals and feel that, whether we are applying for a credit card or popping into 7-Eleven for a soft drink, Americans require state-appointed overseers.

...

The second reason for this hostility is that while there is a growing number of secular, progressive, organic-quinoa-consuming homeschool families, there remains a significant conservative and Christian component.

...

A third reason is that the majority of homeschool teachers are mothers. A traditional two-parent family with one full-time breadwinner and one stay-at-home parent is practically built into the model.

Long live independence!

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Safe, legal and... rare?
From Touchstone Magazine,

The Federal Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) released a report on the eve of Thanksgiving showing that there was an historic drop of five percent in the abortion rate, the most in a decade. The data is from 2009, the latest year available, and shows that there were only 789,000 abortions. [emphasis in original]

The author states that data from California was not included, so the number of abortions most likely was over 1,000,000. 

As for the demographics, this unsettling note,

Approximately 85 percent of women who aborted their babies were unmarried. The majority of abortions are performed by the eighth week of pregnancy. White women had the lowest abortion rate, at about 8.5 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age; the rate for African-American women was about four times that; and the abortion rate for Hispanic women was about 19 per 1,000.  

The liberal mantra of being there for the disadvantaged seems to get turned on its head.

And to put some perspective on the killing of 1,000,000 unborn children every year, it's like having 137 Sandy Hook mass killings EVERY DAY.

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A belated Christmas Light Painting link for you all
Here's a great example!

© Michael Ross

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Doctrine vs. Methodology?
From The Gospel Coalition,

Pastors constantly face temptation to devote more time and energy to methods rather than to doctrine. If that includes you, then give heed to Paul's instruction in 1 Timothy 4:16: "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers."

Following the imperative to keep watch on himself, Paul further instructs Timothy to keep watch on his doctrine. My observation, however, is that most ministers aren't doing this. They don't talk about doctrine. They don't read it. If they're paying close attention to anything, it is their methods and psychology. What's the result? Less biblical fidelity. Less interest in truth. Less seriousness. Less depth.

Neglecting doctrine results in less capacity to offer a compelling alternative to the thinking of our generation. I often hear the excuse that pastors aren't studying theology because they're too busy trying to reach more people. Ironically, this pursuit of identification often comes with a corresponding loss of communication. We put forth all this effort to make people feel comfortable and at home so they don't feel the difference between life in Christ and life without Christ. Problem is, it is supposed to be different when you come to Christ. That is the point.

[emphasis added]

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From Radicals to Oddballs
Oh, those homeschoolers,

There are two facets to educating a child well. The first is to recognize that education is not merely the accumulation of facts, but that it has an unavoidably moral aspect. A suitable education must do more, therefore, than simply teach facts, even moral facts. Education must seek to cultivate the moral imagination of the child, for reducing moral education to a list of rules is bound to fail.

Links for Sunday, 30 December 2012

No, despite America's obsession with guns, the U.S. isn't the most violent country
It's the U.K. From the article,

Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed.

Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world's most dangerous countries.

In terms of violent crimes per 100,000 residents, the U.K. comes in at 2,034 per 100K (with the U.S. listed at 466 per 100K).

For those who may be unaware, the U.K. has effectively banned the general public from owning firearms.

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Besides that, gun control doesn't reduce crime - just ask the U.K. or Australia
From the Wall Street Journal,

We aren't alone in facing this problem. Great Britain and Australia, for example, suffered mass shootings in the 1980s and 1990s. Both countries had very stringent gun laws when they occurred. Nevertheless, both decided that even stricter control of guns was the answer. Their experiences can be instructive.

...

The results have not been what proponents of the act wanted. Within a decade of the handgun ban and the confiscation of handguns from registered owners, crime with handguns had doubled according to British government crime reports. Gun crime, not a serious problem in the past, now is. Armed street gangs have some British police carrying guns for the first time. Moreover, another massacre occurred in June 2010. Derrick Bird, a taxi driver in Cumbria, shot his brother and a colleague then drove off through rural villages killing 12 people and injuring 11 more before killing himself.

Read it all.

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Enacting "Gun-Free [sic] School Zones" increases the frequency of active killer events
So says David Codrea, and he links to an interesting graphic provided by GeorgiaCarry.org.

###

The Mayor of Newark gets it
Mayor Cory Booker,

I'm not afraid of law-abiding citizens who buy a gun... Listen to me, the people dying in Chicago, the people dying in Newark are not being done with law-abiding gun owners.

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The World according to murder
An interesting infographic (have not vetted the accuracy of it).

Provided by Survival Goods

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Be careful what you ask for
CNN asked its "iReporters" the question, "Was your gun banned?", and also asked them to "upload a photo of your gun and share your thoughts on gun control.

An intrepid young iReporter decided to have a little fun with the assignment, and uploaded a photo of a nerf gun* (shown below), stating,

My ak 47, 5th generation model. This one uses the 9.88x33mm round. I believe the only nation that uses it is Canada. They need this kind of firepower actually. I got mine in yellow because nothing says, "I'm big, bad and scary like yellow"...banana yellow.

This gun is actually at the top of the ban list. I don't like that. We have rights to bear arms. Don't take that away from me, don't take that away from us. Guns are a part of our heritage, or history, our roots, our blood.

What happens if tyranny arises? What if North Korea invades? What if a meth head randomly walks into my house? The only thing between life and death, survival, and non-survival, freedom and slavery is this baby.

* "Not vetted by CNN"

Links for Friday, 30 November 2012

Some post election thoughts, albeit a bit late.

They ran out of undies on Staten Island (despite the promises from a "Presidential" looking Obama)
From Fox,

Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro says the people of his community are in desperate need of fresh underwear.

"It's like a third-world nation," Molinaro said in a phone interview on Tuesday's Good Day New York.

If you reference my March 2011 post on being prepared for a disaster level emergency, you'll note that I recommend you set aside extra underwear and socks in the "Shelter" section.

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Is it the end of conservatism in America?
From a commenter at The Belmont Club,

I still have hope, but it is in the states and local communities. The governors and state legislatures must step up and stop acting like subsidiaries of Washington. Those that do will thrive; those that don’t will slouch toward their demise.

So let me be perfectly clear: we must restore self-governance. That was true before this election, and it remains true.

I want to encourage everyone to keep trying to preserve the republic. We have been blessed to be a part of this great American experiment, and we owe it to those who have paid in blood and treasure to not give up. It is a duty we should not fear, but relish. And if you don’t think you can do that where you live, come on down to Texas. We may be the last, best hope of the last, best hope on earth.

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No! Your argument ignores reality.
For clarification, try a simple term substitution - as shown by the strikeout and italics below. From the "Dear Republicans" post, (FYI, the post degrades into juvenile level vulgarity),

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, mention abortion the intentional killing of innocent unborn children again. It will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, be illegal in this country.

Whether or not the truth claim of the second assertion is valid does not mandate the abdication from morality as indicated by the first assertion.

Further reference, The SLED Test.

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Even Obama, Presidential-looking though he may be, cannot cut through red tape.
SUCKERS.

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The Gods of the Copybook Headings, by Kipling

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

...

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

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Intolerant Liberals, Hispanic Republicans, & an Old Earth

Be wary of those who rag on that the Republican Party is primarily made up of old, rich, racist white men. Be wary because when faced with the prospect of a young Hispanic Republican, as in Marco Rubio, the media seems to think that a question of priority for said Republican is to ask him how old he thinks the Earth is. Let's disregard how other issues were skipped over in lieu of that high priority age of the Earth question. Issues such as: immigration, the economy, healthcare, gun running into Mexico, a U.S. Ambassador being killed in a coordinated attack at a U.S. Embassy and, maybe, the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, you know - low priority issues like that. Oh, and let's also disregard the fact that Rubio probably-most-likely-maybe thinks that the laws of aerodynamics work consistently enough so that he believes that when he boards a jetliner it will actually fly through the air (as designed); or that he thinks that the laws of chemistry work consistently enough so that when he takes medication it will interact with his body the way it is supposed to; or that he thinks most of that - you know - "science stuff" really works.

Yes, since they can't accuse him of being an old, rich, racist white man, they simply disregard all of the real issues and paint him out to be some sort of buffoon by asking him how old the Earth is because, when all is said and done, they're not interested in tolerating a Hispanic Republican.

Be wary.

Embassies and Rabbit Trails

There seems to be a meme floating around Facebook noting that, under George Bush, multiple embassy attacks were made (anywhere from 7 - 11) with up to 53 people being killed. The insinuation is that things were worse under Dubya than under Obama AND that people are somehow hypocritical if they criticize Obama for the attack on the embassy in Benghazi.

Let's take a look at this.

From Media Matters there's a post titled, Krauthammer Whitewashes Bush's History To Bash Obama Over Embassy Attack, which lists out seven U.S. Embassy attacks under the Bush Administration. Yet in reading over each of these attacks one finds that not one American was killed. Not one! In some cases, the embassy or building attacked was empty.

But the most egregious problem with this meme is that it attempts to divert the attention from where it belongs. The issues with the attack on the Benghazi embassy have to do with,

1. Americans being killed (indeed, a U.S. Ambassador being one of them),
2. Americans requesting U.S. military intervention - and being denied,
3. A coordinated and well planned attack being carried out (ostensibly by paramilitary forces),
4. Said paramilitary forces belonging to a group (al Qaeda) which the current administration has declared to be decimated,
5. Said administration lying about what happened, why it happened, and how they addressed it.

This muddled thinking and blindness to issues of reality, by the Left, will continue to leave America open to attacks from terrorists abroad.

Absolutely Uncertain

Watch this one...

 

11 years on

11 years after 9/11 we see that the problem still exists (witness the recent events in Cairo and Libya).

What we need to realize here is that on December 7, 1952 (11 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor), not only was World War II over, but Japan was our ally, and we were in the midst of the Korean War (which would not be over for another 7 months). The dynamics of the acts of aggression in those conflicts are categorically separate than what we now face. This is different - very different. As for the events of the past few days, to blame an insignificant movie as the cause demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the core issue. Furthermore, to blame an insignificant movie for the murder of 4 Americans in Libya would be like blaming Wall Street for the toppling of the Twin Towers. Oh, I forgot, some people already do.

But, I thought it was supposed to be Junk?

Remember how Junk-DNA was supposed to be a blatant indication of the process of methodological naturalism? Remember how all that noncoding fluff in the genome was considered the result of the trial and error nature of the evolutionary process?

Yet, it seems that the junk is not so junky after-all.

In the following video by Dr. Fuz Rana, from Reasons to Believe, he tells us of the importance of the Encode DNA Project, and its findings. In the video he states that the Encode DNA team have determined that about 80% of the human genome consist of functional DNA seqences.

I recall a discussion I had years ago with a friend, who accepts the naturalistic evolutionary mindset, and his response to the apparent fact that so much of the genome was noncoding (i.e., "junk") was, "And that makes sense from an evolutionary point of view."

What really makes sense, when one sees the vast integrated complexity of the genome, is that one is looking at the work of a designer. A mindless process? Or the process of a mind?

3 September 2012

Yes, I hate taxes

Have you seen this little ditty floating around the internet (e.g., on Facebook)?

Cute.

Here are my thoughts:

• Schools:  Along with Public School Employee Unions, low performing teachers, overpriced and bloated administrations, emphasis on testing rather than students? Average expenditure / student in US = $11,665. And you want MORE?
• Roads:  Along with Public Employee Unions, excessive benefits, civil service mentality, bureaucratic red tape? Try contracting roads to private firms to see efficiency in execution.
• Firefighters:  Along with early retirement pensions for some at upwards of 90% of final salary?
• Police Officers:  Along with early retirement pensions for some at upwards of 90% of final salary?
• Hospitals:  You mean like the ones run by the Catholic church?
• Paramedics:  A wonderful perk of living in the 21st century West.
• HAZMAT Teams:  Oh yeah, that must be a big line item in the budget.
• Soldiers:  Definitely.
• Sailors:  Definitely.
• Airmen:  Definitely.
• Marines:  Definitely.
• Coast Guard:  Definitely.
• Clean Air:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Clean Water:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Safe Food:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Pure Drugs: Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Child Protection:  As long as child protection agencies do not abuse their authority and power.
• Safe Products:  Not at the expense of bloated over-regulation.
• Air Traffic Control:  Yes, definitely. And fire them all (a la Reagan) if they try to go on strike.
• Space Exploration:  Robotic exploration is the future.
• Bridges:  Managed by government, contracted to private firms. Kind of like the transcontinental railroad.
• Tunnels:  Managed by government, contracted to private firms.
• Flood Defenses: Hopefully not as was managed in New Orleans (by the gov't)…
• Universities:  Like Stanford, Claremont, or Yale? Oops, those are private firms. Same comment regarding overpriced and bloated administrations.
• Museums:  Culturally enriching… yet a low priority for taxing the citizenry - ask the 1%'ers to help out.
• Science:  Science? Science couldn't exist without more taxes?
• Diplomatic relations with other countries:  Definitely.
• Public Parks:  The ones that are used frequently or the ones that sit empty for most of the week?
• Criminal Justice: Definitely.
• Medical Research: This can't happen without taxes? Oh yeah, when you socialize medicine, you take away incentives for private research - got it.
• National Forests:  Definitely.
• Care for the Elderly & Disabled: This is the government's responsibility?

 

The 10 round magazine myth (and 2.47 seconds to react)

From HotAir, Dems offer gun-control amendment to cybersecurity bill,

You didn’t think Congress would do nothing after the Aurora shooting, did you — especially the Democrat-controlled Senate? Fueled by the detail that the AR-15 (not an AK-47) used in the massacre had a high-capacity drum magazine — which jammed — Senate Democrats have offered an amendment to the pending cybersecurity bill that would ban possession of magazines past a maximum 10-round capacity:

That's right, the old 10 round maximum capacity fallacy. For some reason, anti-2nd Amendment folks seem to think that a major contributor to mass shooting deaths is the fact that semi-automatic firearm magazines can hold a lot of rounds of ammunition. Well, certainly it's easier to attack more people with a magazine fed firearm than with a Kentucky Long Rifle (single ball fed system); and, conversely, it's easier to defend oneself and one's family with a magazine fed firearm than with a Kentucky Long Rife. But the real issue is not how many rounds a criminal has available to his use, but the proficiency of one's firearm handling skills (and, it should be added, the mechanical efficiency of the firearm itself - it seems that the large capacity AR-15 magazine used in the Aurora killings caused the rifle to jam).

Case in point, the following video of a magazine exchange - that from an empty one to a fully loaded one - with a semi-automatic handgun. Note that the time the gun went from "empty" to "loaded" is 2.47 seconds.

 

Only in California (v. 11)

Orange County former Assistant Sheriff, convicted tax-evader, paid $948,000
From the Orange County Register,

Jaramillo was convicted of tax evasion and other charges in state and federal courts. A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in February 2011 set aside Jaramillo’s guilty plea on corruption charges, which forced U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford to modify his 2009 sentence of Jaramillo for his guilty pleas to income tax evasion and corruption charges.

But his boss, the former Sheriff Mike Carona, wasn't exactly the cream of the crop either.

Carona is serving 5 1/2 years in a federal facility, while Jaramillo was released to a halfway house Oct. 13 after spending 22 months in a federal prison and several months in the halfway house.

Carona fired Jaramillo on March 17, 2004, when the two had a falling-out over several issues dating back to Carona’s request to have Jaramillo try to persuade Orange County prosecutors to take it easy on the son of former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl. Greg Haidl and two other young men were later convicted for sexually assaulting an unconscious girl. The boys were 17 at the time of the attack and the victim was 16.

What is that saying about power and corruption?

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Santa Ana City Councilman exposing himself
From the Orange County Register,

A former executive with the county government and current Santa Ana councilman lured female employees who reported to him into his office, where he groped them and exposed himself, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference Tuesday.

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Orange County's CEO resigns amidst Councilman's arrest - gets $270,000 severance
Again, from the Orange County Register (do we see a trend here?),

Tom Mauk agreed Thursday to resign as the county’s highest non-elected official, the latest executive departure since former O.C. Public Works manager Carlos Bustamante was charged with 12 felonies for alleged sexual abuse of female employees.

Mauk will receive about $270,000 in severance payments, said John Moorlach, chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors. That includes 10 months of pay and 410 hours of accrued vacation time and is a bit less than Mauk would have been entitled to under his contract if he’d been fired, Moorlach said.

And you wonder why we distrust government?

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Well, I suppose a shotgun could be considered a type of 'super-soaker'

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Election Fraud!!! At a high school?
No, it wasn't in Chicago.

Scenario: 

1. High school students running for office in ASB election.
2. Student # 1 wins the election.
3. Later, student # 2 hacks into the school's database and discovers that the ASB Faculty Adviser rigged the election, and that student # 3 actually won.
4. Faculty Adviser resigns as adviser yet continues to teach.
5. Student # 2 is immediately given a 5 day suspension for hacking into the school's database.
6. Student body is, rightfully so, very ticked off.

From the article,

But Troy students remain outraged by the school's handling of the matter, noting that while Bigham received a five-day suspension immediately after coming forward with allegations of ASB election fraud on April 23, Redmond continued teaching the ASB leadership class for the remainder of the school year.

"The implications of what I did vs. what she did are not on par with each other," said Bigham, 17, of Buena Park, who was stripped of his post as ASB secretary after exposing the scandal. "I feel changing the results of an election has far more gravity than finding out by whatever means that someone did that."

Change. You can believe in.

Two black men; Two views on the 2nd Amendment

Black man # 1 incorrectly thinks the 2nd Amendment is all about providing the opportunity to go hunting and shooting and, more importantly, that weapons such as AK-47s should only be in the hands of soldiers and not criminals (one has to wonder if citizens are then equated with criminals?).

Black man # 2 correctly notes that the 2nd Amendment is all about being the citizen's last defense against tyranny (and, that would tend to equate citizens as soldiers).

The sorry thing is, black man # 1 is supposed to be a constitutional professor.

Bonus Footnote:  Watch Suzanna Hupp school Texas Legislators on the 2nd Amendment.

UPDATE:  Should probably note that if Obama is so concerned about AK-47s getting into the hands of criminals, then perhaps he should take the Fast & Furious scandal a bit more seriously.

Grenade Launchers for sale in El Paso?

In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Aurora, there are the requisite stories on gun control, etc. CNN.com joined the chorus with an article titled, Fear drives opposition to gun control. One interesting tidbit from the article is the cover photograph used. Here is a screen-capture.

Note the caption:  

An assault rifle is equipped with a high-capacity drum magazine and grenade launcher at an El Paso, Texas, gun expo.

A grenade launcher available for sale at a gun expo in the United States?  

 

Links for 23 July 2012

Disabled car turned into motorcycle?
Supposedly done by a Frenchman after his car broke down in the middle of a desert in Africa.

Reminiscent of The Flight of the Phoenix.

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Family Dinners Don't Work Magic
The magic of helping bond families together. Of course, no one that I know of has said that the whole family simply sitting down for dinner could take the place of genuine parental love and interest in their children.

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Tree rings show that Earth was warmer for the Romans than now?
Has Al Gore been notified?

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How to explain the tax system with beer

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Africans in the U.S. sending their kids to school in...
Africa.

My, how times have changed.

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Geek News of the Week - Cassini sees daytime lightning on Saturn