Snowflakes in Hell

Sailorcurt does some more analysis of the election results in Virginia, which I talked about earlier here.

The Brady campaign seems to have a tendency to stick with “safe” endorsements. They don’t expect their endorsement to actually gain any votes for the candidates (except in certain, very specific areas) so they only make endorsements in races where they have a reasonable expectation to win.

Even with that, they don’t have a great success rate and they lost both of the races that were being touted by all involved as being “referendums on gun control”…Devolites-Davis lost her District 34 senate seat and Cuccinelli held onto his (by the skin of his teeth) in district 37.

Yep.  And they are telling people it’s a win.

The strange thing is that the NRA seems to have the same tendency as the Brady Campaign. The NRA absolutely CAN have an impact on the election results but in many cases they seem to worry more about getting the “W” than supporting the superior candidates.

For example: In Senate district 14, the NRA supported “B” rated Henry Blevins against extremely Pro-gun (and VCDL endorsed) libertarian candidate Donald Tabor. There was no anti-gun candidate in the race so there was no danger of splitting the pro-gun vote…so why not support the superior candidate? Unless, of course, the “W” is more important than upholding principles.

Not all that strange.  Most groups that issue endorsements will endorse as many safe, friendly seats as they can in order to inflate the value of their endorsements.  I called out Brady mostly because they lost in the ones where they really took chances, and then touted it as a victory.

The main reason NRA won’t endorse Libertarian candidates is because Libertarians don’t win.  If you endorse the Libertarian, the Republican who didn’t get your endorsement is going to be pissed at you, and might decide his B grade isn’t worth keeping.

Read Sailorcurt’s whole post.  It’s a good analysis of the election.  I’ve also written in the past about the Grading/Endorsement system, and how it’s more politics than principle.

Looks like Traction Control is off in SoCal.  This is really one of those times we should stop being blue staters or red staters, Democrats or Republicans, gun owners or non-gun owners.  At times like this, we’re all Americans.

Well, I guess it’s not so much if almost half the people in the state want to get out:

The latest poll found 28 percent of people wanting to leave citing America’s highest property taxes as the leading reason; 19 percent mentioned the state’s generally high cost-of-living, with 6 percent citing housing costs and 5 percent citing state taxes.

Other top reasons for wanting to leave New Jersey include the weather, environment, longing for a change of scenery, overdevelopment, congestion and government corruption.

Half of those wanting to leave want to move to the Southeast, with Florida and North Carolina the most popular choices, the poll found.

We’re getting a lot of migration from New Jersey too.  Not mentioned are New Jersey’s gun laws as a reason for leaving.  Around these parts, we certainly know a few.

Hat tip SayUncle

The process of our parents robbing us blind has begun.

UPDATE: Bitter has more. We both get some reactions from pissed off boomers who note, correctly, the system screwed them too, and it’s not their fault.  Still, I couldn’t help poking some fun at their expense ;)   Sorry.

It pains me to write that headline, because I do love the ladies (especially one lady in particular):

The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked 76 percent, a disturbing sign that federal health officials say they can’t fully explain.

For all young people between ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004 - the biggest single-year bump in 15 years - in what one official called “a dramatic and huge increase.”

Of course, the gun control folks will be disappointed in this:

The study also documented a change in suicide method. In 1990, guns accounted for more than half of all suicides among young females. By 2004, though, death by hanging and suffocation became the most common suicide method. It accounted for about 71 percent of all suicides in girls aged 10-14; about half of those aged 15-19; and 34 percent between 20-24.

Well, we haven’t exactly made guns less accessible since 1990, so it would seem that guns aren’t a driving factor behind female suicide, especially as more young women arm themselves. They definitely aren’t going to like this:

It also said the suicide methods suggest that prevention focused solely on restricting access to pills, weapons or other lethal means may be of limited success.

I’ve never found the prevention of suicide a compelling reason to restrict access to anything, because I believe that it’s a person’s fundamental right to terminate his life. But it’s nice to know studies are showing it wouldn’t work anyway.

Hat tip to Ms. Moneymakers

UPDATE: ZendoDeb has more.

Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71.

UPDATE: Countertop has more.

It’s always hard when you’re part of a group that large segments of society look down upon, to know when jettisoning your wackos (and every group has them) is the preferable thing to keeping them. On the one hand, the wackos hurt the image of your group with the public at large. On the other hand, they often times make significant contributions to your group’s activism, and ostracizing them will actually hurt more than it will help. I say this in answer to a question in one of Clayton’s posts:

If it is a tiny minority, why do supposedly respectable gay rights groups like Lambda Legal and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force feel the need to defend it or provide legal advice about how to deal with the legal consequences? This would be equivalent to Focus on the Family providing instructions for Christians about how to get away with assaulting homosexuals–confirming a false and nasty stereotype.

Gays are at a point now where they ought to think about shedding their wackos, and distancing themselves from gays who choose to have sex in public places. But as the article that Clayton updates with points out, a lot of these guys are living normal, respectable lives, outside of their bathroom habits.

I’m not sure why it’s so hard to believe that these guys aren’t necessarily gay.  If you’re a mainstream, out of the closet gay guy, you don’t need to resort to public restrooms to get your cheap thrills, you can go to a gay bar and pick someone up.

But if you’re in a marriage, and have absolutely no dignity, or care little for your commitment for your spouse, a cheap thrill at an airport bathroom while on a business trip might seem a convenience with little chance of the wife finding out. Affairs and prostitutes cost money, and time. Hotels show up on credit cards.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending sex in public, but I’m also not sure I’d dismiss the notion that this might not be a problem that’s limited to the gay community.

The NGLTF is calling out Senator Craig for his hypocrisy, which I think is only appropriate, but I do think the are going a bit far here:

“And by the way, why are Minneapolis tax dollars being used to have plainclothes police officers lurking idly in airport restroom stalls?”

Because people complained about lewd acts occurring in them. I won’t complain about NGLTF calling out Craig for hypocrisy, he deserves that, but let’s not go so far as to defend sex in public places. If I’m in an airport bathroom, and some guy starts peeping into my stall, and making hand gestures, then gets into the stall next to me, and starts with a “wide stance” that involves his foot and/or hand in my stall, you can bet it’s going to make me a little uncomfortable. I don’t think it helps build tolerance of gays to suggest that the police shouldn’t be investigating reports of lewd acts in public restrooms.

Hat Tip to Clayton Cramer.

Gonzalez is out.   Now can we please get someone running Justice who will clean up the ATF?  And maybe, just maybe, have some respect for people’s constitutional rights?

Gonzalez made me pine for the days of Ashcroft.  He was that bad.

I should state as a disclaimer that I firmly believe that pigeons are rats with wings.   But here’s another reason to stoke my, perhaps irrational, dislike of pigeons.

Chances are my sister and father know someone among those officers decked out in ninja gear.  The high school they speak of is where I graduated from.

I agree with Scott Adams that conspiracy theories are a boatload of fun, as are the people who sincerely believe in them.  Interesting enough, I think he touches on the appeal of them:

I believe the intent of the movie is to alarm people into being more skeptical of their government. It had the opposite effect on me. It made me happy to think there might be a plan. If the war on terror is real, it scares the shit out of me. But if, as the movie claims, it’s entirely manufactured, and the war in Iraq is meant to be a permanent conflict to sell weapons and control oil – that is much less scary. It means the war will stay where it is and no one will “follow me home.”

It also means the nuclear bomb ambitions of Iran are a lie. That’s one less thing to worry about. All I have to do is stay out of the National Guard and invest my money in defense contractors and I’ll be safe and happy. Those shadowy rich guys are doing a great job!

I’ve long believed that the Truther movement is largely a reaction to a fear of what the actual truth behind 911 (that it was committed by 19 middle eastern hijackers who were, in their minds, fighting a jihad against the United States) would mean.  I think most conspiracy people are actually, even if unknowingly, influenced by Scott’s feeling.  I think he was just honest enough with his feelings to recognize it for what it was.

If 9/11 was a conspiracy by our own government, than it’s not so scary.  Presumably we can expose the truth, make people aware, and change things.  It’s certainly a lot easier to quell uncertainty and unease by adopting this kind of view, than it is to believe the solution will involve a lot of killing, uncertainty, and the possibility of more attacks from people out there who hate us, and who we can’t influence or control.

No, not this NRA, I’m talking about the National Renderers Association. They have formed a committee relating to biofuels. Who is the NRA? Well, according to their website:

The NRA is an American Trade Association, whose business is to promote the interests of it’s members. Members of this association are all in the business of rendering, i.e. transforming waste from the meat industry into useable products for animal feeds and technical use. Renderers are even known as the original recyclers. On average slaughter houses, packing plants, supermarkets, butcher shops and restaurants collectively generate at least 40,000 metric tonnes of animal byproduct each week. Without the rendering industry, byproducts from meat and poultry processing would fill up landfills very quickly and the decomposing waste would contaminate our soil and water with disease-causing microorganisms and vermin. For more information on this and related subjects see the Environmental perspective page found on this site.

This is the kind of biofuel I can get behind; the kind made from waste product. I certainly like it a lot better than screwing up the economy to give ADM nice fat subsidies, along with artificially inflated corn and feed prices.

Well, I think Ed Brown, the notorious tax protester, is going to choose the latter option.  It’s a very well written post.  These are the kinds of people I’d honestly prefer not have guns.   They make normal gun owners look like whack jobs.  Taxes are not a reason to threaten to murder people, and whether he ends up dead or in prison, I won’t shed a tear for him.

But I will say this, his situation is an interesting study in how power works.  If you defy your governments laws, eventually men with guns will come and exert the government’s power over you.   All power comes down to that.   To those people who believe that small arms can never be effective against an oppressive government, Ed Brown’s continuing resistance to government power shows that the notion is incorrect.  If it wasn’t for being armed, he’d be in federal custody already.

I believe Mr. Brown is gravely mistaken in his belief that the government has gotten so out of control that violence is an acceptable solution.   I’m sympathetic to the idea that the government has made too many encroachments into our liberties, and that our federal government exercises power beyond its constitutional limits, but the government has done no wrong so grave that taking up arms against it, and against its agents, it warranted.

They say you learn something new every day. What I learned through Lady Bird Johnson’s recent death was that she was still alive. Every once in a while, some celebrity or political figure dies, and I’m left thinking “Wow, I figured they died years ago.” LBJ checked out a year before I was born. I guess when you think about it, JFK might still be alive today if Oswald had missed. But it seems so long ago.

It’s also amazing to me that we have World War I vets who are still alive.  Talk about longevity.   Then there are the people who I think really did die years ago, but they just haven’t realized it yet.

For some reason I find this amusing, even though I shouldn’t because people were injured:

I would have to caption that photo “Gulliver Gets a Strike”.  But seriously folks, there’s nothing funny about wrecking balls gone awry.  Meadville is in the Northwestern part of Pennsylvania, between Pittsburgh and Erie.

It’s an extremely unwise idea to fuck with people the Romans couldn’t conqueror.

Via Glenn

John Adams:

It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

What? No beer?  Bah… Puritans!

No… not because of terrorists, but because of a tornado warning.   Apparently funnel clouds were spotted as the storm was approaching DC, so the park service decided to clear the mall.   I like thunderstorms, but Bitter, being from Oklahoma, does not.  There are also reports of golf ball sized hail.  Here things don’t look too terribly bad.

Oh well, there’s no reason for this to interrupt my drinking, which is, after all, the best way to celebrate our independence.

Happy 4th of July to everyone.   Don’t blow your fingers off!

I’ve thought up a way to celebrate the failure of our jihadist friends, thanks to their own incompetence, combined with quick effort on the part of Glasgow firefighters.   Sure, we can fight the terrorists, but it’s good to make fun of them too.  And what better way to do that this July fourth, than with a stiff drink.  This one is named in their honor:

“Flaming Jihadist”

1. Take one British style pub glass.  Substitute any wide mouth glass if you don’t have one.
2. Fill glass part way up with some McEwans Scotch Ale, such that when a shot glass is dropped in the glass, it almost but doesn’t quite come over the top of it.
3. Fill a shot glass with Johnny Walker, or other blended scotch.  Using a single malt for this makes you an infidel.
4. Light the shot glass on fire and drop it in the pint glass
5. Say in the best GroundsKeeper Willie voice you can muster “May ye burn in hell”
6. Drink the beverage such that you don’t burn yourself.   The ale should extinguish the flames.

I won’t be held responsible for any mishaps.   Drinking flaming beverages, of course, is dangerous, and probably stupid.   If you are a jihadist yourself, you should remember that you are forbidden from drinking alcohol, and instead I should suggest pouring the bottle of Johnny Walker on yourself, and having a smoke.   It’s the only Allah approved method for enjoying the drink.

No, it’s not a drink (but maybe it should be!). It seems to me that we’re seeing the c-list Al-Quada types carrying out these operations. The cars were loaded with gasoline, which is not an explosive. I think these guys watched a few too many movies. If you want to set something on fire, gasoline is good at that, but you’re not going to do much damage to anyone other than yourself, especially at an airport, where firefighting equipment isn’t exactly in short supply.

The police officer trying to put the guy out was following the instincts any civilized person would. Had they had suicide vests on, that could have been a fatal response. I’m not in agreement with the bystanders who shouted “let him burn”, but I wouldn’t have blamed the officer for dispatching him with a shot to the head, in fear that he might be a suicide bomber.

I’m a little skeptical that Ford’s troubles have more to do with their stance on homosexuality than the fact that they aren’t making products that people want to buy.   While I don’t have any issues with Ford’s supporting of homosexual groups myself, I will say I don’t know how much it makes sense for Ford to court gay buyers.   Gays typically are in demographic brackets are that are less likely to be attracted to Ford products.

I think it’s wise for corporations to stay out of controversial political issues as much as they can, otherwise they shouldn’t act surprised when they create PR problems for themselves.   I have no problem with Ford supporting groups that are promoting gay marriage, but people who have no issues with the idea of gay marriage are very much in the minority right now.   Any company that wades into that issue, one way or another, does so at their own peril.

My mother was a big fan of Mr. Wizard when he was on TV when she was a kid in the 50s and 60s. When I was a kid, his TV series aired by Nickelodeon was one of my favorites. Today he died at the age of 89. He will be missed.

This type of incident has happened before in my area, and now it seems to be happening again.  I have a special level of loathing for criminals who masquerade as police officers, because it erodes the public’s level of trust in law enforcement.

It’s one reason I’m understanding of Bitter’s disdain for officers removing weapons from license holders during stops.  I understand why officers do it, but I also can understand a woman’s reluctance to be disarmed by any male, even one claiming to be a police officer.