Snowflakes in Hell

Bitter attracts her very own token Animal Liberation Front teenage terrorist. I have to admit, I’m kind of jealous. The best I’ve done is some loser from Minnesota and a Brady staffer who didn’t even have the decency to appear menacing.

I’m going to guess that the kid’s parents are probably whack jobs too, because if I were that uppity as a teen my parents would have put the smackdown on me.

But it doesn’t seem like a terribly good idea to me to go throwing threats, veiled or otherwise, around the gun blogosphere, a demographic which is decidednly more heavily armed than some countries.

Check out what PoliticsNY has to say about their Congressional Delegation. Particularly Carolyn McCarthy:

Those are rating for 2002 and 2003 respectively. You have to scroll all the way down to the “poor” section to read the comment:

Carolyn, it’s a year later and we’re still waiting for you to tell us about your second highest priority. McCarthy, a registered nurse whose life was changed forever when a lunatic on the Long Island Rail Road killed her husband and severely injured her son, got herself elected to Congress on the strength of the gun control issue – and the odd behavior of the Republican incumbent. Now seven years have passed, and McCarthy’s gun control agenda is no closer to passage than on the day she arrived in Washington. It’s time to get a new issue – or get out of Congress.

I couldn’t agree more!  Four years after this comment, she’s, thankfully, still no farther along.

Kim asks “So, children, your task for today is to study the list of semi-auto rifles on the list contained in the latest version of the Assault Weapons Ban, and see how many of them you own”:

`(i) AK, AKM, AKS, AK-47, AK-74, ARM, MAK90, Misr, NHM 90, NHM 91, SA 85, SA 93, VEPR;
`(ii) AR-10;
`(iii) AR-15, Bushmaster XM15, Armalite M15, or Olympic Arms PCR;
`(iv) AR70;
`(v) Calico Liberty;
`(vi) Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU;
`(vii) Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, or FNC;
`(viii) Hi-Point Carbine;
`(ix) HK-91, HK-93, HK-94, or HK-PSG-1;
`(x) Kel-Tec Sub Rifle;
`(xi) M1 Carbine;
`(xii) Saiga;
`(xiii) SAR-8, SAR-4800;
`(xiv) SKS with detachable magazine;
`(xv) SLG 95;
`(xvi) SLR 95 or 96;
`(xvii) Steyr AUG;
`(xviii) Sturm, Ruger Mini-14;
`(xix) Tavor;
`(xx) Thompson 1927, Thompson M1, or Thompson 1927 Commando; or
`(xxi) Uzi, Galil and Uzi Sporter, Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle (Galatz).

That’s 5 by name, but if Carolyn McCarthy wants gets her bill, she’ll ban nearly everything in my safe, because of this:

`(L) A semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General. In making the determination, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any Federal law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, and a firearm shall not be determined to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is suitable for use in a sporting event.’.

I collect and shoot military and military patterned firearms.  That’s what I do.  If McCarthy gets her way, my days of collecting are going to be very numbered.

So, Congressworm McCarthy, care to explain to me how taking away guns from people like me would have saved your husband?

From the Land of Snow and Beavers, comes this fun piece:

“Our first thought was to Taser it, but we didn’t think that would go over well in front of people,” Evans said. “It would be a safe way to control the animal and it wouldn’t hurt, but the public might not think that.

“They ended up wrestling it, or at least trying to wrestle it. On the third or fourth attempt they finally got it to the ground and got the can off.”

Evans said the deer ran into the bush uninjured, but with the imprint of a coffee can around its face.

I’m not sure I’d advise taser use to incapacitate a wild animal. They aren’t even really all that effective on people sometimes, and, with the exception of all but the biggest ones (kidney belts, I’ve heard, are pretty much impossible to fight through), depend on a psychological component that you wouldn’t have in a scared animal who’s brain is wired a bit differently. I suspect it would have some effect, but I would say you’re probably likely to injure the animal or be injured yourself trying to deal with it. Plus, here’s one from the Taser manual:

The nervous systems of animals are greatly different than human beings. The ADVANCED TASER is designed to be effective on a human attacker. Accordingly, it will not be as effective at incapacitating an animal as it is on a human being. The ADVANCED TASER should not be used as sole protection from wild, uncontrollable, or attacking animals. Law enforcement can use the ADVANCED TASER or dogs, but it is advisable to have animal control officers present to “collar” the incapacitated dog while the T-waves are working.

But the funny part is these Canadian cops thought that wrestling the thing to the ground was a good alternative :)

From the comments:

I can confirm that these statements were made by an impostor. I’m a spokesman for the Brady Campaign, and I know that none of us were involved in those postings. That’s not our statement, and it’s not our position.

So it would appear whoever is hosting that MySpace Blog is not actually speaking for the Bradys in an official capacity. The IP he’s coming from does check out as being from the Brady Campaign, so this is for real.

Dr. Helen writes about gifted kids in public schools:

It seems to me that the main source of socialization for many kids, especially smart ones in public school, is found in learning how to cope with the egos of teachers who can’t teach and other kids who are uninterested in learning anything beyond dominating the social hierarchy.

I don’t think we can discount the value of this lesson, because, let’s face it, one could easily say:

It seems to me that the main source of socialization frustration for many kids adults, especially smart ones in public school the corporate world, is found in learning how to cope with the egos of teachers managers who can’t teach manage and other kids worthless petty coworkers, who are uninterested in learning contributing anything useful beyond dominating the social hierarchy.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  I often find myself thinking that 95% of the people who occupy professional positions aren’t really doing much beyond consuming oxygen and turning into more greenhouse gases.  I think that’s a good lesson for kids to learn early, so they are prepared to deal with it when they get into the “real world”.

CNN has an odd but interesting defense of other story:

A man says he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

“Now I feel stupid,” said James Van Iveren, who has been charged in the case. “This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake.”

According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning February 12, damaging the frame and lock.

I don’t honestly think charges in this case are appropriate. A reasonable person, hearing what sound like screams of help coming from a neighboring apartment, I think is perfectly justified in doing something here, even if I wouldn’t do exactly what Mr. Van Iveren ended up doing. I think Van Iveren is civilly liable for the damage he caused, but what he did should not be criminal, and society ought not encourage the “don’t get involved, let the professionals deal with this” mentality that prevails among government officials.

This does illustrate the risks we face in coming to the defense of others; it’s something we do at our legal peril. I think the real lesson here is that if you like loud, screaming pornos, keep the volume down.

I see Bitter is running the same story, from a different source.

UPDATE: Bitter updates on the post linked above that it turns out it’s not particularly screeching porn, which I suppose would make a difference.  At the very least, this should keep things interesting for whoever ends up on that jury :)

Check out today’s Dilbert!  What makes it funny for us is that Dogbert could be working for Sarah Brady or Josh Sugarman, and it will still  be perfectly valid.  The sad thing is, crap like that probably actually happens on a regular basis.

Smallest Minority has a long but also rather good post up with a transcript of part of Jim Zumbo’s interview with Tom Gresham.   I  pretty much agree with  Kevin’s take on it.  As I mentioned yesterday, Zumbo can still make it up to me, because I can forgive ignorance on the political aspect of this issue.  But outright anti-gun sentiments I can’t abide by.  Being a hunter doesn’t get you a free pass there.

… and “Bureaucrats are the same stupid people, with bad incentives.”

So says Megan, referencing an earlier post:

Which brings up one of my perennial peeves about people advocating national health insurance or any other big programme: they point out all the ways in which public choice problems make the current system suck, and then proceed to outline their future plans as if those problems will somehow magically fall away in their system. Companies won’t lobby. Voters won’t demand that every stupid alternative procedure they can complain about be covered, much less react to the lack of a price signal by using more of everything. People employed in that sector won’t band together to keep wages high and productivity as low as possible. Bureaucrats won’t shift priorities to minimizing their own political risk, rather than maximizing the level of service provided to the public.

Both her first and second observations I think are quite good.  I’d also recommend reading the original Tyler Cowen post linked to if you follow the last link to the quoted post.

I don’t talk much about health care because it’s one of those subjects where I don’t trust anyone who tells me they have a good solution to the problem.  The more I understand about the problem, the less I think I understand it, and the less I think anyone else understands it either.   This is, of course, going to naturally make me skeptical about government solutions to the problem.

Clayton Cramer has a good history of Maryland’s concealed carry history up on his site.  As one might expect, the roots of this law, like most other southern states prohibitions against carrying weapons, were aimed squarely at blacks, and were rarely enforced against whites.