Stones Cry Out

So… where’s my blessing?
I’m particularly touchy on # 2, although it does take some of your own understanding to grapple with # 6.

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Grandma would command a lot more respect in one of these babies!

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Estimates vary, but do the math
The country has gotten riled up over a lone madman using a firearm to kill 6 people, somehow coming to the conclusion that we need to implement stricter gun control laws. Consider that if 0.001% (that’s one thousandth of one percent) of the firearm owners in the U.S. decided today to shoot and kill 6 people, we’d have 4,800 people killed. Seems to me that, under current laws, over 99.99% of firearms owners in the U.S. pretty much keep control of their actions.

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Now this is cool
One thing, though… might it be done to our infrastructure as well?

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Another advertisement for the home school industry.

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Global Warming Denier?
From the New Mexico Independent, Martinez picks former astronaut, global warming denier to head energy, natural resources department. Alternate title, “Martinez picks first and only scientist to walk on the moon, global warming realist to head energy, natural resources department”.

Good morning. 

1. An honest man, Diogenes sought … found.
2. Historical crime.
3. Naming conventions and ethics.
4. In the wake of the rhetorical regrettable moments last night …. a great rhetorician noted.
5. Palestine and Israel.
6. A point made, but perhaps better by the demotivators poster “None of us is dumb as all of us” … the truth of which makes one doubt the sanity of the Democrats who continually place great faith in the ability of that really really dumb “all of us” part.
7. A point Hollywood hasn’t missed.
8. A cold ride.
9. A progression of sorts.
10. Some good advice.
11. I’d buy it (If it’s affordable) … but 1 gets you 10 that it won’t be available in the US cause of our regulatory barriers.
12. This does work. In our house the shower drain is against an exterior wall and when a hard cold snap comes (-10 or worse) we often get a frozen drain. A gallon of boiling salt water opens that up right away.
13. Why do they believe him? Clue in. 

So. Did anyone listen to the address? If so, why? After all, just last week he when he was going on about helping business get out from under regulatory burdens he touted an executive order which (a) repeats a standing order anyhow and (b) has loopholes for the agencies one could drive a truck through. Why would you believe anything he says? And if you don’t, why listen at all?

With the Dodd-Frank financial bill and Obamacare (or whatever it’s called) much more discretionary (ad hoc) power has been placed into the hands of the executive branch. It seems to me those supporters of these moves on the left should consider them in the light of, say, a Palin Presidency instead of a continuing succession of really “smart” liberals like Mr Obama (whatever “smart” means in this context, the meaning of which remains quite opaque to me).

To put it more bluntly, these bills place more political cheese to hand out to supporters and shore up your power as well as make your particularly political notions stick better. You should consider that to the good or ill not in the light of a President you favor but one which you do not.

Commenter Boonton requested a concise summary of the healthcare bill, sans notes or google lookups.

Liberal Congressmen last Spring and Summer dialed in range and windage of their Leupold scopes what they considered the most egregious faults of the current healthcare and “fixed” it with a bill they passed with no little chicanery and much cajoling this Summer. So, what were the primary features of this “great big bill” as one might explain to an outsider who was (blissfully) ignorant of the whole affair. Well, in short, as the Democrats saw it there were two big problems with healthcare that needed focus, the first being … that the current healthcare system had too many people falling into gaps and had no coverage and the second was that healthcare costs have been rising faster than just about any other sector in the economy.  Read the rest of this entry

If you’ve ever wondered what I sound like, I host a political satire podcast that you may be interested in. Click here for the current show’s page, which also has links to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or another podcatcher of your choice.

Imagine thousands of young adults kept locked in various rooms, separated from their parents, and some with no access to food, water, or the opportunity to relieve themselves, for up to 5 hours.

That’s what happened to several Los Angeles Unified School District high schools a few days ago after a school police officer was shot and wounded.

From the L.A. Times,

Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district’s police chief acknowledged, as officials coped with complaints from parents frustrated once more with the district’s handling of an emergency situation.

Not to worry, though, for even though the lockdown encompassed 9 different schools in a 7 square mile area (for one person shot, mind you), the police department is sympathetic to the predicament the students faced.

“That is not the time to attempt to deliver food to 3,500 students — during the search for an armed assailant,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese.

Well… surely the school district must have a bit more sympathy?

“Yes, parents are upset that their children at El Camino perhaps weren’t allowed to use the bathroom,” Siegel said, “but safety of the students is our top priority”.

Safe, if not thirsty, hungry, and doing the “I gotta pee so bad!” dance. Yet some classes did improvise by, as one parent put it, “peeing into trash cans”. Some schools have gone so far as to implement the use of “Lockdown Kits”,

In fact, a 5-gallon pail is part of a “lockdown kit” that is supposed to be accessible to every classroom. The pail with a removable lid is “solely for the purpose of this kind of situation,” said district spokesman Robert Alaniz.

Other elements of the lockdown kit include toilet paper and a portable toilet seat. There’s also a flashlight, polyethylene bags, blankets, a pocket radio, bandages, tissues, disposable vinyl gloves, assorted batteries and duct tape.

Every new teacher is supposed to receive training in using the kit, which includes a recommendation that teachers supply a sheet that can be draped to provide privacy, said Bob Spears, the district’s director of emergency services.

What’s that? A “recommendation” that the teacher supply a sheet that can be used to provide some bit of privacy?

It seems to me that about the only other place you hear of a “lockdown” occurring is… that’s right – a prison.

Rest assured. If our home school ever goes into lockdown mode, there will be more in the lockdown kit than mere toiletries.

A verse I found highlighted by a friend on Facebook:

Proverbs 26:18-19 (New International Version 1984, ©1984)

¹⁸ Like a madman shooting
   firebrands or deadly arrows
¹⁹ is a man who deceives his neighbor
   and says, “I was only joking!”

The Left seems to forget their own hateful rhetoric when they start to point fingers at Sarah Palin. “…a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it.” “I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.” “Somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp.” Indeed. These and other gems at Q&O.

On the (much) lighter side, I have finally been convinced that you should only put 1 space after a period, not two. I’m endeavoring to do so in this post, but it’s a hard habit to break.

Living up their promises, the Republicans have put forth a proposal for $2.5 trillion of spending cuts. Since it’s that amount over 10 years, it’s still only a drop in the bucket. But it’s more than they have suggested in the past (as far as I know) and certainly more than Democrats ever have. If the Dems want to criticize the choices of where to cut, let’s just see them propose their own.

I grew up in the Salvation Army denomination. (Yes, it’s a denomination.) Representatives from around the world are currently meeting to elect the next General, the administrative head of the Salvation Army. You can follow events on their web page, get e-mail updates, or even follow them on Twitter.

Cutting sugar, sodium and trans fats. Buying more produce locally. Cutting price premiums for healthier food options. That’s Wal-Mart for you. (Yeah, that Wal-Mart).

In Houston, it’s apparently safer for the homeless to go hungry than to get a meal that hasn’t been government certified.

Reason TV asks, what happened to the antiwar movement? It gives a serious look at the disappearance of a group that was so huge while Bush was President. Glenn Reynolds notes, they were useful idiots until they stopped being useful.

Charles Krauthammer:

Suppose someone – say, the president of United States – proposed the following: We are drowning in debt. More than $14 trillion right now. I’ve got a great idea for deficit reduction. It will yield a savings of $230 billion over the next 10 years: We increase spending by $540 billion while we increase taxes by $770 billion.

He’d be laughed out of town. And yet, this is precisely what the Democrats are claiming as a virtue of Obamacare.

Some say that if spending $X saves us $Y down the road(where Y is greater than X), then the government should spend it. But ObamaCare is much more a behemoth than simply judicious spending on road repairs before they get much worse. The claim that repealing ObamaCare will cost us money is ridiculous for Krauthammer’s reason.  Amazing.

And finally:

Look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it
It would seem that Canada is, indeed, in dire straits.

I recall watching a movie, during the late ’70s, broadcast from a television station in San Francisco, California. Being from southern California, it was notable to me to see the difference in what the station owners allowed to be broadcast vs. what I was accustomed to at home (e.g., partial nudity, vulgar language, etc.). What was striking, however, was one instance where the use of “jeezus” as a curse word was left audible, while a derogatory term for a homosexual was bleeped out.

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If we should ban 30 round magazines, because someone used one while killing six people
Then we should ban scissors, because someone used one to kill seven newborns.

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The Glock ~ AIDS connection?
And, yes, the Glock cannot teach children (but, then, the public school system doesn’t seem to do that very well either).

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Hey. What could go wrong with this sales promotion on January 17th?

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Geek News: NASA Telescopes Help Identify Most Distant Galaxy Cluster

This afternoon (finally) I drive home. As another note, in reaction to the “civil discourse” push, I’m pushing back (like this) for the next week or so. So with that being said, let’s lock, load, and line up our sights on some links. 😀

1. Super Bowl and the President. Chicago is Mr Obama’s “home town.” I live in a town, Lemont, and have lived there for 18+ years. In the eyes of most in my town, I’m a newcomer. I won’t be considered “from Lemont” by those in Lemont until my family has lived there for a few more generations. 
2. Defining liberalism and a bullet list of points that define the same. Is it right? What’s missing? 
3. Hydrolic energy storage, of which I know little.
4. Two deathly posts from Dr Platypus here and here.
5. I suppose it would help if I knew what “cert” meant.
6. A conversation to watch unfold.
7. Obamacare repeal and budget.
8. A book noted.
9. Speaking dismissively of athletics for intellectual development. For myself, I started cycling a sport which requires physical perseverance and endurance. Those traits are learn-able and can be improved. My impression is that training has carried over to my perseverance in non-physical matters.
10. That undulation costs fuel … a counter suggestion.
11. Last words on Mr L.
12. And an aphorism on evil.

CNN apologized yesterday when a guest used the word "crosshairs" in a sentence.    Is this what the Left considers the way to civil discourse; censorship? 

And didn’t CNN used to have a long-running, argument show called … "Crossfire"? Whew, glad that’s gone.  We really dodged a bullet there.

In light of the recent Tucson mass shooting, and the negligent discharge shooting (as it now appears) at a high school in the Los Angeles area, the usual cries are voiced regarding gun control. Over the past 15 years, however, it seems that gun control lobbies have lost more battles then they’ve won. Lately, an interesting, if not entirely expected tactic they’ve taken, is that of placing their crosshairs on the purchasing of ammunition. After all, so the thinking must go, if one does not have any ammunition then one’s firearm suddenly becomes nothing more than a club.

Last year, California gun-control advocates introduced, and passed AB962, which would have forced citizens who desired to purchase “handgun” ammunition to conduct the transaction in a face-to-face setting, providing photo-ID, residence address, and a thumbprint (i.e., registering themselves and their actions with the state). Signed by then Governor/Terminator Arnold Schwarzennegger, the bill was touted as promoting our own safety. From the governor,

Although I have previously vetoed legislation similar to this measure, local governments have demonstrated that requiring ammunition vendors to keep records on ammunition sales improves public safety. These records have allowed law enforcement to arrest and prosecute persons who have no business possessing firearms and ammunition: gang members, violent parolees, second and third strikers, and even people previously serving time in state prison for murder.

Such thinking must surely have been inspired by the fact that so many gang-bangers get their handgun ammunition at places like Walmart or through on-line vendors (/sarcasm).

AB962 was set to go into effect in a few weeks.

Word has come in, this morning, that AB962 has been successfully appealed in court. From an NRA news announcement,

The lawsuit—funded by the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle and Pistol (CRPA) Foundation as part of a joint Legal Action Project—was prompted in part by the many objections and questions raised by confused police, ammunition purchasers, and sellers about what ammunition is covered by the new law.

…

Many of the nation’s largest mail-order and online ammunition retailers had already announced that they would soon end sales to California residents. If the law had gone into effect, it would have required that “handgun ammunition” be stored out of the reach of customers, that ammunition vendors collect ammunition sales registration information and thumbprints from purchasers, and that vendors conduct transactions face to face for all deliveries and transfers of “handgun ammunition.”

AB962 was just another in a string of laws which do nothing more than restrict the actions of law-abiding citizens. Let’s hope that continued resistance to a Nanny-State mentality will help set the tone for the real hope and change our country needs.

Good morning.

1. More on the left getting stupid in the wake of the AZ shooting. And the Orwellian nature of the “civil speech” movement (especially given that civil or non-civil speech had nothing at all to do with the recent event).
2. A case of PDS exposed.
3. Speaking of stupid, a Jewish liberal takes umbrage to Christian terminology, used by a Christian politician in a Church (of all the places). Hint, Christians call fellow Christians brethren (a term in use for just shy of 2000 years). What do they call non-Christians? Neighbors. What are they called to do for their neighbor? Love them. Wow, that’s just sooooo exclusionary. 
4. Another look at the economy and recovery.
5. The trillion dollars spent for what? 8000!?
6. College ejukation.
7. The wikileaks problem from a practical standpoint.
8. How they got there, a suggestion which might be humorous but slightly offensive to those on the left of the aisle. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
9. More right leaning satire here.
10. A film review untangled.
11. About that Doc fix thang.
12. Wait and see. I’ll bet its going to turn out to be a forgotten empty gesture.

Most notably in the middle east (Egypt, Iran), Christians are coming under an increasing number of attacks, and an increase in their brutality.  Also, when the Pope asked for religious tolerance in Pakistan, he was burned in effigy.

Good morning.

1. Racists remember MLK, if somewhat snarkily.
2. A less snarky way to note the occasion. 
3. Interview with an influential journalist, or at least influential in one corner of the world.
4. Life and Sanctity.
5. Tunisia noticed elsewhere.
6. Silly talk of the NRA. Seriously though, I think just about the most civil place I’ve enjoyed was at the firing range, at which I’ve never ever seen anything but civility (HT).
7. Attempting to minimize budgetary ignorance.
8. Somebody somewhere has never witnessed a Montessori school.
9. For your String theory primer.
10. Hard work that calls to some.
11. Media crackdown.
12. The left’s echo chamber decries the lack of intellectual vigor on the right. Turnabout.
13. Arithmetic correction for Mr Krugman.
14. Soap opera coming to the high court?

For all of us who’ve endured helping our less tech-savvy acquaintances…