Blog
Civil Rights
The Second Amendment
THE RIGHT TO ARMS AND THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM
Nelson Lund, from the George Mason University School of Law, has posted a paper on the importance of the Second Amendment.
Abstract:
The right to keep and bear arms is a vital element of our liberal order, but its philosophic basis is no longer appreciated by American elites. The left rejects the understanding of politics on which our nation was founded, and conservative intellectuals have been remarkably uncomfortable with the right to arms. George Will and Charles Krauthammer, for example, have advocated repeal of the Second Amendment, and conservative pundits have generally stayed silent in the face of such attacks on the Constitution.
People who do not understand why they should defend the right to arms are not likely to be its most effective defenders, and ignorance about the philosophy underlying our free institutions is among the least excusable failings of public intellectuals. Conservative pundits constantly complain about the erosion of individual liberty by bureaucratic government, about the enervating effects of the nanny state, and about the suffocating atmosphere of euphemisms and repressed resentment imposed by the political correctness police. If they had a better understanding of John Locke, William Blackstone, Cesare Beccaria, Alexis de Tocqueville, and every one of our founding fathers, these opinion leaders would not display an effete abhorrence of what Krauthammer calls “America’s frontier infatuation with guns.” Our nation’s founding philosophy was not infected with some silly romanticism about guns or an outmoded frontier mentality. It was based on the reality of human nature and on reason, neither of which has changed since the eighteenth century.
Some people say that they have no personal reason for owning a gun; they need to give a little more thought to why they don't need one. The fact is, they probably have someone close by who is protecting them with a gun.
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Law and Order
Crowdsourcing Law & Order
Let the record show...
FBI data shows that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) received 2,131,485 background-check applications in June, 39 percent more than the 1,529,057 applications that were filed in June 2015. (See nics_data.pdf)
“There have been 26.5 million checks during the last 12 months, more than in any 12-month period previously,” the National Rifle Association (NRA) reported.
“If the present rate of checks holds through December, there will be over 32 million checks conducted this year, more than double the number conducted during President Obama’s first year in office.”
There is something to be said for government soliciting citizens to show that they are law-abiding before they can exercise a guaranteed civil right — the right to keep and bear arms. That government requirement duplicates a requirement, and kind of puts said citizens in a category, that is shared with the personnel whom government employs to ensure that the laws are enforced. It explains why the crime rate is dropping while police vacancies are increasing.
UPDATE:
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Dogs
K-9 Therapy
As a sufferer of stress-producing hearing loss and hypertension, I can attest to the fact that a dog can be a tremendous blessing. A gentle, well-behaved dog doesn't need much more in the way of special training; they are naturally equipped to provide comfort and relief.
Others are also aware of the gift...
Get yourself a good pair of walking shoes, and a good K-9 companion, and you too may be able to throw away all of that blood-pressure medication. It's worth a try.
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Baseball
Chicago Cubs
Along with Kyle Hendricks' pitching, and Anthony Rizzo's 450'+ home run's (that's plural), Jason Heyward gives us a good example of why the Cubs are at the top of the heap in the National League... Actually today, at .606, they're at the top of the heap in MLB.
That's scooping up a "tweener hop", and making a 252' throw to home plate to nail the runner!
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Freedom
American Institution's Under Attack
The National Rife Association (NRA) is an American Institution — an institution that has been around since the 19th century, and has done more to promote firearm safety than all of the State Legislature's combined. The NRA also stands for something that socialists cannot stand; the symbiotic relationship between individual freedom and individual responsibility.
I’ve often joked with friends out here in California about the difference between our capital city of Sacramento and Las Vegas. One is full of hustlers, whores, and lowlifes. The other is located in Nevada.
Well, that statement used to be considered as a joke, but it is looking more realistic as days go by.
The few gun owners who have been paying attention to the foaming lynch mob that the California legislature has become know these truths well. The rest will find out, to their shock and disgust, in due time.
It's time for everyone to start paying attention!
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Law & Order
Schooling Bureaucrats
This is an excellent example of why we can't, or shouldn't, rely on the Department of Homeland Security, or any other "bureau", to provide for our personal security.
Last winter, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy was forced to teach Kelli Burriesci, a DHS bureaucrat, about Constitutional rights during a House hearing.
It would be bad enough if people like Burriesci were not ignorantly trying to infringe on a citizen's right to protect themselves.
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Crime
Interdiction
Ever more evidence: More guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens equals less crime.
[A] 2012 Congressional Research Service study showing gun ownership jumped from 192 million privately owned guns in 1994 to 309 million in 2009. At the same time, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” of 6.6 per 100,000 Americans in 1993 fell to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2000 and as far as 3.2 per 100,000 in 2011.
Now, newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers show the firearm-related murder rate maintained this low rate through 2014 — the most recent year in which the CDC has numbers to report....while the theories of the left would suggest such a massive jump in gun ownership must result in more bloodshed, empirical evidence shows that more guns actually correlated with a sharp decline in the firearm-related homicide rate between 1993 and 2014.
Evidence shows that, at least where guns are concerned, the combination of citizen gun-ownership, freedom, and liberty is better at reducing crime than adding more statutory clutter to an already overburdened justice system.
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Weather
Waterspout!
Summer on the Gulf Coast
If the atmospheric science professionals of yesteryear would have had the photography being submitted, by the public, to local television stations, we would probably know a lot more about weather dynamics than we do. A few examples from yesterday's crop of photos:
Another day of life in the weather machine...
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Justice
Speculation
Speculation has become so ubiquitous that people not only expect it, but treat it as fact. For example, there are people today, even (and especially) in the media, who believe that George Zimmerman attacked Trayvon Martin.
The issue of speculation has been addressed before, including an April 26, 2002 article by Michael Crichton of the International Leadership Forum
"I will join this speculative trend and speculate about why there is so much speculation."
Crichton accurately points out that the blame needs to be equally shared by the person who believes a story without knowing the facts; a process that he calls the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them....You read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect.
When speculation finds its way into the media, society is bound to suffer.
If speculation can serve as the basis for public policy, why can't it be used as 'reasonable suspicion', or even 'probable cause', in a court of law?
/fl
Circumnavigation
One of Those Who Inspire Vicarious Adventure
If any problems arise (and they usually do!), I'll have to deal with them using tools & spares I'll carry onboard ...
Jeanne Socrates, aboard S/V Nereida, successfully completed a nonstop, single-handed, unassisted sail around the world at 2:26 a.m. on Monday 8th July 2013, when she passed Ogden Point at the entrance to Victoria Harbour, 259 days after leaving Victoria in October 2012.
She became the first woman to sail solo nonstop around the world from North America and the oldest woman to sail solo nonstop around the world (a record noted in the Guinness Book of Records)
The record was later claimed by Minoru Saito of Japan, who currently holds the record at age 71.
Socrates is preparing to attempt another circumnavigation, starting October 2016.
I expect to be at sea for around 7-8 months, hoping to get safely around the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean and back to my starting point without any outside help and without using my motor (which will be sealed).
I'll post daily blogs to my website and I'll be talking each day to people on land around the world using my HF radio, which I use for emails as well - so I shan't be quite alone!
If any problems arise (and they usually do!), I'll have to deal with them using tools & spares I'll carry onboard ... and all food for my time at sea will need to be with me from the start of my journey - fresh eggs turned daily should last several months, onions and potatoes most of the way, and I'll also have canned and dried foods.
Drinking water will come from a water-maker (desalinator) working off my batteries and I'll have long-life milk and fruit juices as ballast! My batteries will be mainly powered by the sun and the wind, with a small backup generator to help on windless, overcast days.
I'll do my own weather routing using my radio to get the information - 'grib' weather files will come as email attachments and weather faxes will come direct from onshore transmitters located beside whichever sea area I happen to be in.
It's useful to know when a storm is expected - they're very frequent over a good part of my route - and in planning my route I'll try to stay out of both calms and storms and in favourable wind as far as possible.
I'm hoping to use my sextant to practise navigation skills made rusty from frequent use of GPS. The Southern Ocean is often overcast so taking regular sights won't always be possible - but when well offshore, in the middle of an ocean, that's not a problem!
This will be my fourth solo circumnavigation and, I hope, my second successful nonstop one...
When I finish, I'll become the oldest person to have sailed around nonstop, solo, unassisted.
“The oldest person to solo circumnavigate nonstop should be a woman,” Jeanne Socrates said when asked why she wanted to do this all again.
Socrates will be 74 upon successful completion.
Firearm Safety
The Purpose of Training: Dealing with Exigency
"TO TEACH THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ATTITUDE NECESSARY FOR OWNING AND USING A PISTOL SAFELY."
When teaching boat-handling, I make it a point to counsel student's to "never let your boat go anywhere that your mind hasn't already been." Over the years, I have found that kind of advice doesn't always fall on fertile ground. If there is one thing that constitutes "fertile ground" in learning, it's student 'attitude.'
That is why, for example, the NRA Basic Pistol course includes the word "attitude" in the goal of the course. It's that important!
A person's attitude is reflected in their behavior; especially in how that person reacts to exigency. For example, a trained person shooting a semi-automatic pistol should know that the pistol will be indiscriminately ejecting spent shell casings into the air, and those shell casings will be hot to the touch, and the possibility exists that one, or more, of those casings might land on the shooter. Attitude allows the shooter to cognitively prepare themselves to safely deal with hot brass landing on them.
Shazam, that term "proper attire" has a new and greater meaning! And, it becomes less likely that exigency will lead to a negligent discharge — such as this case:
SARASOTA, Fla. -- A teenager who died after a shooting at a Florida gun range on Sunday was killed accidentally by his father, police said Monday.
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that they concluded the shooting at the High Noon Gun Shop was not intentional based on witness statements and video.
According to police, Stephen J. Brumby, 14, and his dad, William C. Brumby, 64, were practicing in a shooting lane against a wall when the accident took place.
"After firing a round, the spent shell casing struck the wall causing it to deflect and fall into the back of (the elder) Mr. Brumby's shirt. Brumby then used his right hand, which was holding the handgun, in an attempt to remove the casing. While doing so, he inadvertently pointed the firearm directly behind him and accidently fired," a police statement reads.
Brumby's two other children, a 24-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter, were also present and uninjured, police said.
No charges have been filed.
A local who frequented the gun range told CBS Tampa affiliate WTSP-TV that the incident is unusual.
"It's quite surprising, because the owners are very professional," said Goichi Matsumoto who works in the same shopping plaza and has shot in the range before. "I wouldn't have thought something like this would happen here."
Last month on the businesses Facebook Page, there was a post of a meme of a child holding a rifle. The meme reading "Properly trained kids don't have accidents."
Never assume that the stranger shooting next to you at the range has a reasonable attitude or has been properly trained.
Stay alert. Be safe!
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