New Blog Announcement

Thanks to Publicola and Say Uncle, we now have a multi-contributor blog dedicated to guns and shooting. It is not a political blog, rather an informational one. It's called The Shooter's Carnival.

Contributors currently signed up are:

Me (though I've yet to contribute my first piece)
Alphecca
Boone Country
Hell in a Hand Basket
LayLines
Publicola
SayUncle
Stop the Bleating

The site will accept contributions from anyone, just e-mail Say Uncle with your piece.

Give it a look. Make a suggestion. Hell, ask a question and I'll attempt to answer it in a piece there (and here too.)

Assault Rifles are Only Good for Killing Large Numbers of People

Or are they?

According to this Greenville (South Carolina) News story, an AK-47 rifle was among the weapons used to apprehend two burglars at a car dealership. The story (note, please, the headline):

Lawmen often scarce in county's rural north

The break-ins wouldn't stop at Shupee's 4x4, so the owner says he grabbed an AK-47 assault rifle and two friends and staked the place out all night.

In the darkness and quiet of northern Greenville County, the three vigilantes say they hid in trucks and a shed until two suspects pulled into the dealership's parking lot.

Vigilante: : a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law appear inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice.

I submit that these men did not punish crime, they simply suppressed it by doing their duty as citizens to stop crime when police were not available to do so. The use of the word vigilante has extremely negative connotations today, but I'm certain its use was quite deliberate in this story. Imagine the gall of mere citizens defending their property without government sanction! Anarchy! Anarchy!

When one tried to break into a black Jeep, Ken Shupe, Jeff Cartee and Dwayne Johnson say they jumped out and made the suspects lie face down in the gravel parking lot until deputies arrived.

The men said they had to police the lot themselves because there aren't enough deputies to cover the county's rugged northern terrain.

See "Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection."

"It's not the cops' fault," Cartee said. "It's whoever needs to put the cops on the street."

County Councilman Joe Dill said budget constraints have kept the county from hiring more deputies this year. With drug labs, break-ins and a growing population, the need for deputies will only grow in northern Greenville County, he said.

"We're still a long way from having the number of deputies that's required to really patrol that properly," Dill said.

Sheriff Steve Loftis said that most of the time six to 10 deputies are on patrol north of Greer and Furman University, a mountainous area comprising about 170 square miles.

The number of deputies usually suffices, but a big event, such as a homicide, or a large volume of calls, can slow response times, he said.

"There's always room for additional help," Loftis said, "but we try to staff the beats as best we can."

Jeff Moore, spokesman for the South Carolina Sheriff's Association, said there isn't a good rule of thumb for sheriffs to use to determine an appropriate number of deputies. He said what's appropriate for one county may not be appropriate for another county that's more thickly populated.

While the fight over funding continues, residents are finding other ways to protect their homes. That includes forming CrimeWatch groups.

And apparently "vigilante" groups.

Volunteer firefighters in Gowensville, a rural area north of Greer, help by occasionally driving by houses when residents leave town, said Fire Chief Terry Wilson.

"It's basically neighbor looking after neighbor," he said.

In the Shupee's 4x4 incident, a suspect tried to remove a box and some speakers from a Jeep at 3 a.m. on Aug. 10, an incident report states. Cartee stepped out from the shed and told him to get on the ground, the report states

"Going through your mind is, 'It's on. You've messed up,'" Cartee said.

When the suspect "began to mess with something on his side," Cartee fired a warning shot from a 12-gauge shotgun, the report states. The suspect dropped to the ground, the report states.

Cartee then told another suspect, who was standing by the road, to get on the ground, too, the report states. The suspect dropped the wrench he was holding and did so, the report states.

Shupe said he said he wasn't interested in a gunfight. He said he just wanted the break-ins to stop at his business, which is a few miles south of the North Carolina line on U.S. 25.

"It's just because of the remote location that they think it's open game up there, which it's not," Shupe said.

Warrants charge Helge Christian Gresser, 31, and James Brian Killough, 27, both of Hendersonville, N.C., with possession of burglary tools and breaking into an automobile.

When it comes to catching suspects, Loftis said he encourages the community to help by calling deputies when they see a crime. But he said he discourages citizens from taking up arms.

"I would advise against anything like that because I don't want to see any citizens get themselves hurt," Loftis said.

Would that be because you believe that ordinary citizens are incapable of using firearms responsibly? That it's not their job to defend their lives and property? That they're not qualified?

Loftis said the growing population of northern Greenville County will require more deputies, but he doesn't yet know how many.

He said budget constraints kept him from asking for more deputies this year, but he will ask for some in the 2005-06 budget.

In the meantime, Johnson said he hopes the Shupee's 4x4 incident sends a message to thieves.

"A word to the wise: We're watching," he said. "A word to the unwise: We're waiting."

Damned straight.

Dept. of Our Collapsing Schools

I have already concluded that the reason our school systems are collapsing (or have collapsed, depending on just how far gone you feel they are) is due to the fact that it's far easier to lead a nation of ignorant people than a nation of intelligent, questioning, reasoning people. In fact, I found this quote at A Life of Freedom this morning that says it better than I can:

"Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it." -- Thomas Paine

So here's another example of what our school system is doing to our children, allowed by our apathy, via Emuse:

Gently, gently, Mama began to probe with her 8-year-old the ramifications of grading a whole class based on the behavior of a few students (especially those identified since kindergarten as incapable of marshalling self-discipline, let alone of expressing learning skills). What, I asked, were individuals assessed upon?

That may seem a bit over-wrought --- unless you have children partaking of the current public education system. And, as I always hasten to add, ours is a very good public education system.

Unfortunately, more and more, "very good" is coming to mean: I'll teach your children to read, write and cipher in exchange for being allowed to indoctrinate them in socialist, entitlement, tolerance dogma. "Bad" is coming to mean: I'll indoctrinate them in the same, but won't bother to teach 'em to read, write and cipher.

That's it precisely. And it defines the difference between "collapsing" and "collapsed." Go read the whole post.

Nod to Acidman for the pointer.

"Never Have So Many Been So Wrong About So Much" for So Long

Apologies to Sec. Rumsfeld, but this guy is so stereotypical it's almost a parody.

His name is Scott Bateman, and he's a freelance cartoonist. Allow me to fisk his three most recent political cartoons:

Actually here Scott is illustrating two ignorances - the general public's and his own. First, the majority of Americans believe that Saddam was in some way responsible for the 9/11 attacks, which is not true. But is the war on Iraq part of the War on Terror? Absolutely. I invite you to read (if you haven't already) two excellent pieces: Our World-Historical Gamble by Lee Harrison, and Steven Den Beste's outline on the cause of the War on Terror. Yes, Scott, the war in Iraq is part of the War on Terror.

Note also the typical liberal's respect for the "little people" - those they want government to rigidly control for their own good.

A government run, of course, by caring, compassionate liberals who believe that everyone is equal. But they're the "More Equal," of course. The rest of us are obviously idiots.

Next we have this one:

Note the unselfconscious use of the word "quagmire." The invasion of Afghanistan was supposed to be a quagmire. The 21-day assault on Iraq was supposed to be a quagmire. Neither was. Now that we've overthrown the Taliban, unseated Saddam, kicked the crap out of Al Qaeda, and prevented any follow-up terror attacks on American soil for two years, Mr. Bateman characterises this as "screwing up badly." I don't know what planet he's living on, but apparently it isn't this one. Unless he's in France, of course.

If all you see is what the newspapers and national networks show, I can understand his pessimism, but reports from the people on the ground aren't so one-sided. They see the people of Iraq overwhelmingly happy that we've freed them. LTCR (select) Smash has this anecdote. Sgt. Pontifex explains that California is not limited to the L.A. city limits, nor is Iraq limited to the Sunni Triangle. Then there are these four reports from Basra. There's much, much more out there if you just take a little time and look.

The "real world," Mr. Bateman?

Pot? Meet Kettle.

Finally, we have this, most recent piece:

Note that none of Mr. Bateman's "interviewees" are apparently among the majority of "idiots" he decries in the first cartoon. No, in this case they're exclusively limited to the moonbat minority.

The first says: "Everything's just as it was before 9/11." Really? 3,000 people aren't dead? The twin towers are still standing? The Taliban still rules Afghanistan and still protects Bin Laden and Al Qaeda? Saddam and Sons still terrorize the Iraqis? We haven't killed seven and captured five of Al Qaeda's top 31 people? (That's over a third.)

The second says: "We've thrown two countries into total chaos." Is that a fact? Not according to what I've been reading. Of course, we have freed them from murderous totalitarian regimes, so I can see why the caring, compassionate liberal would be upset by that. (See "More Equal," above.)

The third says: "The Bush Administration has failed miserably." Afghanistan: nine weeks. Taliban: removed. Iraq - three weeks. Saddam: unseated. Uday and Qusay: Dead and Deader. Bin Laden: running for his life. Al Qaeda: severely damaged. Recent terror attacks on U.S. soil - zero.

This is "failing miserably?" No wonder nobody knows who the Democratic Presidential candidates are.

The fourth says: "I'd feel way safer if I could cower with Dick Cheney in that undisclosed location."

No, you'd feel way safer if we'd just wrung our hands, tried to "understand why they hate us," and attempted to buy the forgiveness of the Islamists. I've got news for you, Scott: You're way safer today than you were two years ago. All the radical Islamists are trying to get into Iraq and Afghanistan to keep us from destroying their fantasy ideology.

You're safer, but apparently not any brighter.

(Bateman's a Kucinich supporter. Why am I not surprised?)

OK, I MUST Comment on This (From work...)

The BBC is reporting that Mr. Kevin Morris, chairman of the Police Superintendents Association in England wants "every Briton" in a DNA database.

I am not surprised.

Disappointed, but not surprised.

Orwell was just a little off in his dates.

And I am once again reminded of our Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

--

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

The Britons who understood this idea apparently left to come here.

But here's the money asshat quote from the article:

"Experience has shown that the general public come forward in their thousands when they believe their sample will help police to detect a serious crime."

Right. Step forward and prove yourself innocent like a good little prole. We're from the government and we're here to help you.

To the brits: I hope your chains rest lightly upon you. You've spent the last sixty years forging them.

Short Blog Hiatus

Comcast service is still intermittent. They tell me it's between me and the cable office somewhere, and they're looking.

In the mean time, I'm very busy at work so posting from there ain't happening.

Right now I've got access. By the time I'm ready to post this, I may not.

[arnold voice]"I'll be back."[/arnold voice]

Give or take a couple of days.

More Political Cartoons!

Somehow I don't think Mike Ramirez of the LA Times will be winning
another Pulitzer for this one. But I like it.


This one from Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune
made me laugh out loud.


Larry Wright of the Detroit News weighs in on Estrada's withdrawal.


THAT explains it. From Henry Payne, also of the Detroit News.

And here's one I hadn't seen before:

In Contempt by another Kevin - Kevin Moore.
I'd say he has his finger on that particular pulse

Now, gotta get back to work.

That's Enough for Tonight

We'll see if I have internet access tomorrow.

This is Why I Read Donald Sensing

He has an excellent post up entitled Wealth and Poverty in America and the world. If you read The Smallest Minority but not One Hand Clapping do yourself a favor and go over there and read.

Oh Sweet Jebus, Don't These Blithering Morons Listen to Themselves?

From the Austrailian newspaper the Daily Telegraph comes this story of a robbery in which 34 handguns were stolen by armed bandits. The unarmed guard of the appropriately named "Obliging Security Services" was confronted by two armed men, and forced to open a safe in which the firearms were (legally) stored. Here's the money quotes:

Police Minister John Watkins asked Commissioner Ken Moroney to suspend the licence of Obliging Security Services yesterday after the robbery was revealed in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.

Right. They followed the rules, so it's obviously their fault.

The company was the subject of a security audit by police in August last year and met all the requirements of the Fire Arms Act.


This wasn't enough to keep thieves from breaking into the premises at 11.45pm.


Mr Watkins said he would be looking at changing the Act to introduce mandatory time delay locks on safes, surveillance cameras and better staffing of security offices where guns are held.

Thus making it even more expensive to stay in business, without actually affecting the real problem - violent criminals.

"If a crackdown on the security industry, or greater penalties for failing to secure weapons, puts people out of business – then they don't deserve to be in business anyway," Mr Watkins said.

Right! It's the job of government officials to determine just who does and who does not deserve to be in business. That's why they get elected, right? To tell everybody exactly what to do and how, and when things still don't go as advertised, the elected officials get to blame the electorate for it!

"There's two possibilities here – they didn't follow the rules and are to blame, or they did and the rules aren't tough enough. Whatever the case, I'm changing that from today. It's a sad fact that there's a growing black market in handguns.

And you're surprised why? You had England's sterling example to look to.

"Every gun police take off the streets makes the price of another illegal gun go up."

You understand this, but you're still going to blame everybody but the government and the criminals? Yup, you're a politician. Head so firmly up your fundament that you fart to blow your nose.

I See Darwin is Still With Us or FIRE IN THE HOLE!

Man's horror firecracker injuries

AN horrific firecracker accident which left an Illawarra man incontinent and unable to have sex has prompted warnings from police and health authorities.

The 26-year-old man suffered a fractured pelvis and severe burns to his genital area after a firecracker exploded between the cheeks of his buttocks.

An ambulance was called to Dapto's Reed Park about 2.30am on August 10 after reports that the man was haemorrhaging from the buttocks. He was transported to Wollongong Hospital in a serious but stable condition, and he is expected to remain in hospital for several months.

The man suffered extensive injuries from the explosion and required emergency surgery. He now has a colostomy and a catheter, and is sexually dysfunctional.

He will be assessed by a colorectal surgeon to determine whether his injuries can be corrected.


Illawarra Health emergency surgeon Dr Robert McCurdie, who operated on the man when he was taken to Wollongong Hospital, likened the man's condition to "a war injury".

Dr McCurdie said he believed the man had stumbled while the firecracker was in his buttocks, and fell down on it.

"By virtue of the fact that the explosion was confined in an upward direction, it went up into his pelvis, blasted a great hole in the pelvis, ruptured the urethra, injured muscles in the floor of the pelvis which rendered him incontinent.

"His pelvis was also fractured," Dr McCurdie said.

He said he had never seen a similar injury to the genital area before.

"I have seen instances ... where people have tried to remove items from their rectum and rupture the sphincter muscles, but not anything like this," he said.

It is not known whether the man had been imitating the cult prankster film Jackass, a hit in the United States.

In the low-budget film, the men place firecrackers in their buttocks and they shoot into the air.

There's more, but you get the idea.

A bit more chlorine in the gene pool.

Dude, You're Harshing My Mellow

Mike of Feces Flinging Monkey reports on Digital Rights Management and The End Of The Universe and I'm afraid he's completely and totally right. Bummer quote:

Tomorrow's computer will not be a general purpose computer like the one you have now. Currently, you can buy any sort of device that anyone cares to build - say, a device for copying CDs, or a device for scanning copyrighted works - and you can go ahead and connect it to your own computer without anybody's permission. Tomorrow's computer won't work like that. Tomorrow's computer won't mount a device unless the device driver is digitally signed, and that signature is only available to devices that meet the standards of the signer.

I figured it was too good to last.

The Modem Lives! or I'd Better Post While I Can

If you have broadband access, go take a look at the videos available at MilitaryCity.com of the Armed Forces Journal "Shootout at Blackwater." Some of these are pretty awesome, but the smallest video is 1.3Mb, and most run over 5. But they're worth it. Fascinating stuff.

If you're interested in the latest and greatest weapons technology (brought to you by the private sector - selling stuff only government agencies get to play with) then you'll spend some time perusing the rest of the site.

You'll see things like the .408 Chey-Tac long-range rifle, blended-metal projectiles that penetrate armor plate, but not soft tissue, and a lot more.

I would not want to be on the receiving end of any of this technology. But I'd sure like to be behind the trigger of most of it.

Posting Will Be Very Light (My Apologies)

Cable Broadband is very fast, but not when it's down, and mine's down. Service tech is scheduled for Saturday afternoon sometime.

Bummer.

Anything Free is Worth What You Paid For It

Perusing the archives, I discovered that a lot of comments have disappeared. Haloscan is a free commenting tool, but apparently it's about as dependable as my earlier comment software. Bummer.

If/when my wife goes back to work, I might move this thing off of blogspot and get some real blogging tools.

But for right now I'm blogging for nothing, and that's about what I can afford.

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

I heard on the radio this morning that background radiation levels in Baghdad were 1000 to 1900 times higher than they should be. The supposed culprit? Depleted uranium, of course. The nasty metal used by American forces in weapons like the GAU-8/A 30mm cannon on the A-10 'Warthog', and the M829A2 Abrams 120mm main gun round. (Note: I haven't found any on-line articles referring to this, so I don't know where the morning-guy got the story. For all I know he was reading from the National Enquirer. Regardless, the Depleted Uranium controversy is real and is wholly driven by the environmental left. Do a Google search.)

One problem: Depleted uranium is not all that radioactive. Plus, it produces only alpha particles (a neutron/proton pair, essentially a hydrogen ion) which can be stopped by a simple piece of paper or clothing or even air. It has a half-life of billions of years. It is a heavy metal and is thus poisonous to ingest, but it ain't that radioactive. Via Instapundit comes this excellent article on depleted uranium in heavily linked detail.

If Baghdad does have radiation levels 1000 to 1900 times normal, it suggests that we smacked the crap out of at least one of those WMD programs that didn't exist.

But far more likely that story was found between Elvis pumping gas in a Nevada ghost town and Nostradamus predicting Hillary winning the 2004 Presidential election.

Ok, So I'm a Cynic

Dean Esmay (who may or may not have appreciated the joke below) has a hopeful post up on Ten Odd Things I Believe About Politics, and I feel I must comment. Or at least, I'm going to quote people who have already commented.

1) Most politicians are inherently honest people, and rarely lie.

You MUST be joking! "Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty - their power and privilege - to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by ... politicians." P. J. O'Rourke "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word." Charles de Gaulle "A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar." H. L. Mencken "When asked to name the chief qualification a politician should have. "It's the ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year --- and to explain afterward why it didn't happen." Sir Winston Churchill

2) Waffling is not lying. Neither is changing your mind.

"A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground." H. L. Mencken

3) Being evasive with an answer to a direct question is not usually a sign of slipperiness. It's a sign of a politician still thinking through an issue, or still negotiating it, and trying to avoid being trapped by someone in the press looking for a reason to hurt him and/or interfere with the deliberation process.

"Politicians trim and tack in their quest for power, but they do so in order to get the wind of votes in their sails." Ian Gilmour "A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker." H. L. Mencken "The average politician goes through a sentence like a man exploring a disused mine shaft-blind, groping, timorous and in imminent danger of cracking his shins on a subordinate clause or a nasty bit of subjunctive." Robertson Davies "The politician is trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded, because if they have a cutting edge they may later return to wound him." Edward R. Murrow

4) Almost all politicians try very hard to keep all their campaign promises. Being human, and living in a world where circumstances change, they are incapable of keeping them all. There is nothing slippery or weasely about this, either.

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods." — H. L. Mencken

5) Campaign contributions in the modern American system are not bribes and should not be viewed as such.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Dwight D. Eisenhower "When government does, occasionally, work, it works in an elitist fashion. That is, government is most easily manipulated by people who have money and power already. This is why government benefits usually go to people who don't need benefits from government. Government may make some environmental improvements, but these will be improvements for rich bird-watchers. And no one in government will remember that when poor people go bird-watching they do it at Kentucky Fried Chicken." P. J. O'Rourke

6) The two-party system is the best system yet invented, and doesn't need to be fundamentally altered, although tweaks here and there could always improve it (if we're careful) but could hurt it (if we're not careful or simply miscalculate). But built-in mechanisms for correction always exist. In any case, an educated citizen should expect partisans to snipe at each other, and should try to look beyond these things to the deeper issues.

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right... The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds." H. L. Mencken

7) The only difference between a "rigid ideologue" and a "principled soul" seems to be whether you agree with the politician taking his stand or not.

"The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice." Theodore Roosevelt "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word." Charles de Gaulle (Duplicate, but a goodie.)

8) Most voters are far smarter, more sophisticated, and full of common sense than many people want to give them credit for.

"Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote." William E. Simon "We'd all like to vote for the best man but he's never a candidate." Kin Hubbard "A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." Bill Vaughan

9) Sound bites and campaign commercials, as a rule, are not shallow. Nor are they a sign of deteriorating public discourse. Generally, they convey a great deal of sophisticated information. Generally speaking, the quality of our political discourse is better today than it ever has been.

"We were told our campaign wasn't sufficiently slick. We regard that as a compliment." Margaret Thatcher "The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning." Adlai E. Stevenson "Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of cerebration man can normally muster." James Harvey Robinson "People who are wise, good, smart, skillful, or hardworking don't need politics, they have jobs." P. J. O'Rourke

10) The most crippling factor in our political system is not dishonesty, corruption, two-facedness, or even bureaucracy. It's cynicism, and the laziness that undergirds it. This destructive force most often emanates from the press and the general public.

Cynicism? Guilty as charged. Lazyness? Nope, not me. IMHO the most crippling factor in our political system is greed. It's the voters who believe that they can get something for nothing from the government. It's the citizens willing to give up a little bit of their freedom for some imagined advantage. It's the desire to keep other people from doing something they don't like, not realizing that, as Jefferson said, the government that has the power to do something for you has the power to do something to you. "When a private entity does not produce the desired results, it is (certain body parts excepted) done away with. But a public entity gets bigger." P. J. O'Rourke "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." Thomas Jefferson The nation was founded by men who knew these truths and tried to build a structure that would be self-limiting. In that they failed because they depended on men like themselves to be the meritocracy that ran the small, limited government. Unfortunately, government is power, and power both corrupts and attracts the corrupt. It also atracts the "do-gooders" who believe they know what's best. And, as Justice Brandeis said: "Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent." "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." In short, the problem is the people who believe that government is always beneficial, rather than a necessary evil best kept small and watched warily. It is they who have allowed our government to become what it has become. Government should be crippled. It is to our great dismay that it isn't crippled enough. A final P. J. O'Rourkism: "The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop." And one from Mencken: "The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out...without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable."

More on the Red/Blue State Difference

I just coincidentally received this e-mail from my brother.

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him resting on the seventh day. He inquires of God, "Where have you been?"

God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downward through the clouds. "Look, Michael, look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance.

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.

God explained, pointing to different parts of the earth, "For example, Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while Africa is going to be poor. The Middle East over there will be a hot spot," God continued, pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and while this one will be very cold and covered with ice."

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a large land mass with great lakes, plains, and mountains, situated between two huge oceans. "What's that one?"

”Ah," said God, "that's that's going to be called the United States, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, beaches, rivers, lakes, and climate. And that really beautiful one down in the lower left with the big canyon running through it will be called Arizona, and the people from there are going to be modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, and high achieving people, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then exclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance! Everyone and everything seems so totally perfect in this place you call Arizona.

God replied wisely,..........................................................

”Ahh, just wait until you see the assholes I'm putting in the state just to the left of it.”

Anti-idiotarian bloggers excepted, of course.

Also Via Jay Solo...

Comes this OpinionJournal piece on the American migration from the "blue" states into the "red" ones. Money quote (literally and from my perspective):

Monstermoving.com lets you discover relative buying power if you lived somewhere else. Let's type in L.A. and Tucson, just next door: "A salary of $30,000 in Los Angeles has the same buying power that a salary of $13,448 has in Tucson." For Las Vegas the figure is $13,241. If on top of this they elect a Gray Davis governor, why stay?

Please! Move to Nevada! They don't have State income tax! DON'T move here and bring the same damned politics that got California into the mess it's in now!

You've GOT to Read THIS

Via Jay Solo's Verbosity comes this link to "There's going to be a war", a piece of science...fact? Written by Tom Paine of Silent Running. Go, go, go.