Good morning.

1. Blaster?
2. Well, in the Super-Bowl I liked two ads, this one and this one.
3. What is being taught here?
4. Meta links via Brandon.
5. “No doubt” indeed. There are two ways to tackle runaway deficits, cut spending or raise more in taxes. Alas, studies show only the former works to actually cut deficits.
6. How not to make an argument … present Stalin as a positive example for your side.
7. Someone is unaware that fiscal libertarians can be as reflective as the next guy.
8. A questionable vehicle.
9. I too was confused on why he pretends that’s hard (and btw java’s “jar” command has pretty much the same options).
10. Not for whittling.
11. Praise for Mr Boehner.
12. Trading and causality.

Good morning. It’s zero out here in the Chicago south suburbs … bracing is what that is.

1. The first sentence seems to be the hypothesis for what follows … do you think it’s true (in both respects … that is, it it true and does Mr Obama believe it to be true)?
2. A short film.
3. The patron saint of … what?
4. Gun run.
5. Doncha hate when that happens.
6. Better bike news.
7. So … when you consider that the left wants to put stiff restrictions on what is allowed in the Constitution … well, that doesn’t happen with other stuff like religion, the press, and speech (remember the Volokh series on speech on college campuses) Right? Oh, never mind.
   
8. More on the press here.
9. Profiling and the assault ban.
10. Apparently my notions of what is tactically suggested is outdated, but I’ll bet Mr Biden didn’t know that either. And I still contend a semi-auto shotgun in Sandy Hook wouldn’t have had a better outcome.
11. Corporate cash holding growth explained.
12. No. Duh. And the guy who ruled yes must be an idiot.
13. Remember the claims that Obama has reduced the deficit? … Not so you’d notice.
14. No names and why.
15. Why we don’t want Uncle Sam minding more of the store.
16. For the super bowl .. I really like Mr Arkush when he’s on the radio … he write pretty well too.
17. Snerk. (So … am I a terrible person ’cause I found that amusing)?
18. Chick-Fil-A and football.
19. From a communist on guns. And the left (TPM?) has been touting the “armed citizens” can’t stand up to modern trained soldiers. Right. That’s a straw man. But a politician has to go out in and face his public.

Good morning.

1. Redemption and a Tolstoy masterwork.
2. Ms Austen.
3. Unicorns and the left’s energy policies.
4. Gun control and those far right nuts in, uhm, Massachusetts?
5. You know, ’cause we’re at war with them too.
6. History made simpler.
7. Our Administration’s financial shenanigans … or put simpler … making sure of your landing pad for after your time in office.
8. A man and his witness.
9. Underreported!? or just plain ghastly.
10. Why not to leave Afghanistan too quickly.
11. 6 scenarios.
12. A North American bishop installed.
13. From the sun-never-sets-on … to lack of pride as a method.
14. Well, the first step in letting history repeat is to insist that those circumstance were insane, senseless, and incomprehensible. And interesting tactic for a person who is claimed has a special ability to understand others.

Good morning.

1. Media bias … 1k people gather that’s news (if it’s a liberal cause) 500k gather … not news because it’s not a liberal cause.
2. Or maybe it’s not bias.
3. Not Carbon … whoops.
4. Police tech.
5. Deceit and election tactics.
6. What do you have to lose?
7. Government motors … not doing so well strategically speaking.
8. On safety netting.
9. Some notes on the much abused anthropic principle.
10. Newsflash, museums have been doing that for 40 years.
11. An accusation of liberal racism.
12. Apparently I’m ornery. Certainly there are day’s on which my girls would concur.
13. Pretzels in Congressional testimony.

Good morning.

1. Some history.
2. Assault weapons for which the left wants no state controls.
3. Heh.  Oh, and heh.
4. Not noticing that Texas gun violence is lower than Chicago’s, which has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country.
5. Slipping off the White House talking points.
6. The oldest (working) computer.
7. Better than gun control, gun advice.
8. Obama’s shower bully and race.
9. ’cause Mr Biden thinks a double-ought 10 gauge pump action would have done lots lots less damage in Sandy Hook.
10. Apparently all you have to do is change the name of your gun to be legal if you’re a manufacturer.
11. And … an assault weapon ban and Sandy Hook? No effect at all. No such weapon was used. Oops.
12. “He can see the other side” … does anyone have smidge of evidence to back that up? Or is just like the “he’s really smart” … with no evidence claim?
13. Graft is profitable. Always has been.
14. More State stupidity.
15. On a statement made at the inaugural address.
16. Inclusion.

Good morning.

1. Confused about the nature of religion, worship is public and communal.
   
2. Speaking of confused, one school is quite so.
3. Mandates.
4. (not) acting alone.
5. Cultural movement, regress or progress (or even sustainable)?
6. A boy to note.
7. Drunk drivings vs suicides.
8. Noting silliness on the gun control front.
9. Lies of 2012, some of the more notable noted.
10. At this point … does it matter (if we were shown to be inexperienced stupid boobs), well maybe maybe not, but shouting doesn’t prove anything?
11. For those who reject, … uhm, genetics.
12. Der Speigel and climate change.
13. The “assault weapon ban” and Sandy Hook.

Good morning

1. On abortion and ethics.
2. Optimism?
3. A day remembered.
4. Regulatory silliness down under.
5. So, explain why a gun like this needs tighter regulations.
6. And a hammerless single action.
7. I’m not seeing the coming revolution notion.
8. Snerk.
9. Blind spots.
10. Signing up and is the question of “who” is the Executive relevant?
11. Ethics and God.
12. As the US moves to “more corruption” … another state struggles with fighting its own.
13. Is there a crisis?

Woo Hoo! I’m back.

1. Cool … because they are rare, perhaps in a post-WW-II northern Europe?
2. Now the left will get to disavow Mr Silver.
3. Silliness north of the border.
4. Treaties can do that? And … hierarchy and the Constitution.
5. Occasionally we need to actually overcome that temptation, that’s the rub.
6. I wonder if there is a reasoned argument against chivalry and good manners.
7. Mr Morsi forgets evolution puts him in the same bucket.
8. How liberal or moderate?
9. Rhetoric examined. And what the President doesn’t want you to do, he wants it the other way round.
10. Dan Simmons (in his Illium/Olympus books) argued that androids were in Homer’s Iliad. Hephaestus constructed them to assist him.
11. Ethics meets economics … or does it?
12. Perhaps a better start for a discussion about dignity and human life than abortion.
13. Predictions.
14. Drugs in the modern world.

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.

Good, well, whatever … day/night what have you.

1. Dignity and value of human life ontological not a constituent property, e.g., you are “human” if you posses particular virtues and not if you don’t.  This is the central basis for anti-abortion ethics. If you resist that notion, read Ms Delsol’s book on those forgotten 20th century lessons.
2. My daughter, now a senior, very much was saddened that “woods 3” was dropped because of lack of interest at her school.
3. Political squabbles.
4. A book.
5. Except that it’s not true. Watch “The Island”, asceticism is a virtue and don’t you forget it.
6. Thick and thin thinking.
7. The criminal set thanks you for identifying the vulnerable for future rapes, home invasions, and other mayhem.
8. The real reason for not-disarmament. And another reason.
9. Ms Biel was quite funny.
10. And I’ll leave y’all in the mud.

Well, one day back after two weeks off … prior to heading out for a big big job tomorrow left little time for much of anything.

1. First, what isn’t a surprise, here and here.
2. Disarmament … consequences to follow.
3. Not disarmament, for the gun control debate.
4. Post Newton, remember the noise and nonsense over AR-15s and the Bushmaster rifle? Woops.
5. What gun control buys you. That and a dollar will buy you … well what little a dollar will buy you.
6. Patience and charity.
7. Time porn.
8. Linking two variables.
9. The geniuses at the TSA.
10. Rape.
11. Is this rape? Perhaps not legally … but morally I think it may be.
12. Maths and theology.
13. Well, for myself, that objection is just plain stupid. Those $3-6 day “sweatshops” are often the best jobs in town.
14. Following the money.

And, over the break I saw a complaint about Mr Obama spending very little time this family on vacation. No, I’m not normally one to defend Mr Obama, but … he has two teenage daughters. Two teenage daughters. ’nuff said.

Well, tomorrow we head back to the Midwest by Amtrak and Amtrak (and finally Metra and a car). For those interested that’s mostly the NorthEast Corridor from Trenton to Washington DC, and then the Capitol Limited to Chicago. Our roundtrip was a little over $700 for 4 adults. Not bad.

1. The other parent trap.
2. Pretty woman … gets fired.
3. Insurance and gun ownership.
4. More on guns, bottom line: gun ownership is sharply up over the last few decades and gun violence is trending consistently down. So … why the dialog on guns?
5. Names or not. What does it mean?
6. To read?
7. Unintended does not mean not anticipated.
8. Three new blogs to watch via kbj.
9. Moving on from Afghanistan.
10. Benedict on Epiphany.
11. A blog entry to read to the tune of “all I want for Christmas is …”

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.

###

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!

###

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.

###

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

© Michael Ross

###

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]

###

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.

Good morning.

1. NY Time op-ed favors ignoring equal protection (“parts of the Constitution he doesn’t like”) … kinda like ignoring “felony crimes for high capacity magazines” if you’re a wealthy member of the press but not if you’re a regular schmo, eh?
2. Advice for living the Christian life.
3. Voting and “powerful indicators”.
4. Media bias once more … or if you’re thinking the media isn’t as biased … produce a similar list with counter-examples (or just one).
5. Contra the classical liberal and libertarian, a speech.
6. This is not unrelated.
7. An example of a politically motivated definition … the assault rifle.
8. The big charity problem.
9. A cure for addiction?
10. A book noted.
11. Well, yes of course. Our “ruling class are swine”, but that forgets that basically we are all swine.
12. Obama wants to halt the murder of school-age children, so he’s stopping the drone campaign? Or not.
13. The deficit, just click the link linked.
14. Snow sculptures.
15. Violence in America … meet’s Mark Twain and his “lies, damned lies and statistics” quote.

Good day. Well, I didn’t get an essay out last night. I over-estimated the time I’d have to write with so much family visiting to do. Anyhow … we played the game Munchkins a few times, much fun was had by all.

1. Super-hero Barsbek.
2. Discomfort and disorder.
3. Comparisons again made between late antiquity and late modernity.
4. No PTSD?
5. The complete Democrat party plurality avoided … but only the GOP regrets it.
6. Not defined by sex.
7. How to make a really poor argument.
8. Still gunning for Obamacare.
9. Ya wanna bet they’ll just kick the can down the road again?
10. So, does that shirt literally or figuratively amuse you?
11. Chinese labor.
12. I’d never heard of sugru, have you?
13. A show, I think we’re going tomorrow.