Snowflakes in Hell

So says the Brady Campaign:

In remembrance events across the country, groups of at least 32 people lay silently on the ground (following the example of Abby Spangler, founder of ProtestEasyGuns.com), rang bells, read names, or said prayers to remember the victims and to demonstrate their outrage at weak gun laws in America. Virginia Tech family members and survivors like the Samaha family, the Read family, the Goddard family, the Habtu family, the Pohle family, and others were an integral part of these events.

Remembrance events? Pardon me, but isn’t remembering a tragedy like Virginia Tech by having 32 people lying down and pretending to be dead kind of — stop me if I’m crazy here — tasteless?

It was not a remembrance event, it was a political protest.  They are called “lie-ins” which is a variation of the 60s protest called “sit-ins.”  These were political statements, not solemn acts of reflection.  I won’t get on The Brady Campaign about using the Virginia Tech tragedy as an example of why we need stronger gun laws. Both sides use events, and sometimes tragedies, to advocate our positions. It’s how debate on a topic moves forward.

But I’ll fault them for using the tragedy to fundraise, for such a macabre and tasteless displays of “remembrance” as the “lie-in,” and for generally tying the entire remembrance theme in with their political issues.

I think Virginia Tech deserved the anniversary to be an actual day of remembrance and reflection, not a day of political statements. We have 364 other days of the year to argue the politics.

In Montana:

The Labor Department says recent job losses are behind an increase in the state’s unemployment rate.

Ya think?

Apparently global warming may not increase hurricane frequency.  I am not a climate scientist, so I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have a pretty good grasp on science in general, and have a fair amount of knoweldge of complex systems, but most of the claims as to the effects of global warming have never passed the smell test.  We do know that CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, and we know atmospheric levels of it are rising.  We also know that computer models show more CO₂ in the atmosphere leads to warmer temperatures.  Are the computer models right?  Maybe.  But I’m skeptical that a complex system like climate can be predicted with even a modicum of certainty.

I work in the pharmaceutical industry, and we do a lot of complex systems modeling, particularly how ligands bond to proteins. In fact, what I do for a living is build and maintain supercomputer clusters so these types of calculations can be done.  There have been many good scientists who claim that certain methods of doing this kind of modeling are the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread.  People want to believe in what they are doing, even if it’s not really good science.  I’ve seen too many people collectively buy into a lot of these fads to believe that consensus is always good science.  It hasn’t been always in the pharmaceutical field.  I’m skeptical of any claim that climate science is also not collectively prone to the same errors.

I’m not saying global warming isn’t happening, or it isn’t something to be concerned about.  But I remain highly skeptical of people who claim to be able to model a complex system to such a degree as they can tell you global warming will lead to more droughts, rainfall, hurricanes, or mass extinctions.

According to Jay, who says:

Calling the AHSA a “moderate gun rights organization” is like characterizing the Son of Sam as a “two bit criminal.” The AHSA is an anti-gun front group. Nothing more.

Yep, absolutely.  People who are moderately pro gun, and claim to represent the interests of hunters and shooters, don’t donate $5000 to a group called Handgun Control Inc. Ten grand if you count his wife.

Christine M. Flowers at the Daily News:

Philadelphia has been ignored in Harrisburg. It does have special problems. But acting like defiant and belligerent children when we don’t get our way isn’t going to solve those problems. It’s just going to confirm what the people in northeastern and western and central Pennsylvania already think of us.

That we’re a lawless city.

Yes, it will.  Not to mention that it’s not a great idea, in a city infested with lawlessness, to have the Mayor, Police Chief, and City Council themselves flout the law so flagrantly.

Apparently it’s illegal in Illinois to have a secret compartment in your car.  Outrageous.  The law itself can be found here.  Looks like it makes the vehicle subject to forfeiture, and its owner subject to a class 4 felony.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

Philadelphia’s latest effort to curb violence through gun control was temporarily blocked by a city judge yesterday in a ruling that both sides welcomed, and that left a National Rifle Association lawyer calling for Mayor Nutter’s arrest for “official oppression.”

Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan granted the NRA a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of a package of five gun-control laws passed last week by City Council and signed by Nutter.

Greenspan stressed that she was “just trying to preserve the status quo” until an April 28 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction freezing the laws longer.

The only problem is, you actually have to opresss someone before you can be charged with official oppression, and the restraining order granted against enforcement will eliminate this possible route of action.  As much as I’d like to see the Mayor and City Council arrested for flouting state law, this is just posturing until they actually enforce the ordinances.

US Airways is probably the crappiest airline on the planet.   Now there’s another reason that’s true.  Bitter and I are driving to Louisville in May, because of how much flying sucks.  Hopefully I won’t be flying again until Reno in October.

Silhouette tonight was so so.  I still can’t shoot pistol silhouette for crap.  But my number came up in shot of the week.  That’s where we write our name or membership number on a dollar bill, put it in the pot, and take chances that our dollar bill will be drawn.  If you hit shot of the week, you win.  If you miss, the money goes to the next week.  Last week someone missed. Mine had yet to come up, except for tonight.  The pot was 19 dollars.  The challenge is to shoot a 1/10th scale animal at 25 yards.  It’s about this size, depending on your screen resolution:

Roughly the size of a quarter, cut out into a chicken shape.  I hit it in the ass with open sights, much to my surprise, so I decided the 19 dollars would go toward beer money for the week.  That made up for shooting horribly in pistol.