Tin-horn Tyrant Makes Best Case For 'Gun Control'

Hot Air : Mayor Daley offers his argument for gun control (with video)

Today must be Irony Day in the Western Hemisphere. First we have Cuba calling immigration enforcement “brutal,” and now we have gun-control politicians demonstrating why the founders passed the Second Amendment in the first place. When challenged by a reporter to explain how gun control makes the city safer when it only disarms the law-abiding, Mayor Richard Daley responded by offering to demonstrate by shooting him:

But even supporters of tough gun regulations-myself included-have to admit that it’s not clear how much they reduce violence. Despite having some of the most restrictive laws in the country, Chicago is a national leader in shootings and murders, and the mayor himself noted that “we’ve seen far too many instances in the last few weeks” of firearm violence, including the shooting that left a cop dead last night .

So I asked: since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it’s been effective?

I’m hardly the only guy who asks the mayor things he doesn’t want to answer, and I’ve been responsible for at least one of his huffing, puffing, ranting tangents, which generally get the press corps laughing, thus enabling him to move on to the next question without giving a real answer to the one at hand.

But even by those standards, this was a masterful and surreal performance.

“Oh!” Daley said. “It’s been very effective!”

He grabbed a rifle, held it up, and looked right at me. He was chuckling but there was no smile.

“If I put this up your-ha!-your butt-ha ha!-you’ll find out how effective this is!”

For a moment the room was very, very quiet. I took a good look at the weapon. It had a long bayonet. (Was it seized during the Civil War?)

“If I put a round up your-ha ha!”

The photographers snapped away. Suddenly everybody started cracking up.

Daley went on. “This gun saved many lives-it could save your life,” he said-meaning, I think, that getting that gun off the street might have saved many lives, including mine.

Sure - and it put the gun into the hands of petty tyrants, who then used it to joke about killing people who ask tough questions. If Daley wanted to demonstrate the wisdom of the Second Amendment, he couldn’t have designed a better demonstration.

The Second Amendment exists for two reasons. First, the founders knew that law enforcement couldn’t defend everyone against attack - unless they created a police state that would eliminate liberty forever. They encouraged people to arm themselves, an important move in frontier areas especially, where the writ of law didn’t run very strongly. The police are very good at investigating crimes after they occur, but not in providing personal defense, which isn’t their job.

Secondly, arming the populace makes it much more difficult for those in power to seize property and liberty without due process of law. As Daley aptly demonstrated, when only the government and the criminals have guns, they both can dictate at will without fear of opposition. When a reporter asks a tough question, just wield a gun at him and then later laugh it off as a joke.

The people of Chicago need new political leadership, a story about as breaking as the Chicago Fire. But this should demonstrate the end result of the forced disarming of the American public: an out-of-control arrogance of the government.


Update: John Kass at the Chicago Tribune has the video of the encounter:
[see original for video]

We should note that Daley never pointed the weapon at anyone, but that hardly negates the stupidity of this incident.

As the old saying has it: "Your brain on liberalism!"

This Is Going Just Too Far!

Arizona Demands the Citizenship Status of Students!

Jonah Goldberg on FF and V

National-Treasure-in-training, Jonah Goldberg, on 'FlashForward' and 'V': TV Update

So the word is out. Flash Forward has been canceled, V gets a last minute reprieve. I guess if I had to kill one of the two, that's how I'd go too. But the real shame is that both shows could be/could have been so, so, so much better if they were just better written and (particularly in the case of Flash Forward) better cast. There's literally no character in Flash Forward I wouldn't have been perfectly happy about being killed off. None of them had chemistry with each other or with the viewer. The only guy I was sorry to see go was that fat bearded guy from all the David Mamet movies. I could spend a lot of time dwelling on the idiocy of F.F.'s scripting, but since it's canceled, why bother? But, please, someone inform the producers that the Department of Homeland Security didn't exist in the early 1990s! That was by no means the show's biggest idiocy, but it vexed me every time they referred to DHS doing this or that in 1993 or whenever.

As for V, I just don't get why it has to be so bad not good. It, too, has huge casting problems. The Hugh Jackman knock-off terrorist character is particularly idiotic. In every episode, there are countless "that makes no sense" moments (as in last night's finale when the FBI chick asks for her gun and is allowed to wander around the ship alone). My biggest pet peeve? Every single time the alien queen hottie lies to the humans - every time! - be it during a press conference or when she's talking to the teen beat Dan Rather character from Party of Five, she then turns around and smirks her villain smirk. First of all, she's supposed to be without human emotions. Second of all, even the worst politicians know that smirking-like-Montgomery-Burns after you lie to the public is a horrible habit, particularly in this age of ubiquitous cameras. But what really, really, bothers me is how it betrays the contempt the producers have for the audience. After a whole season of telling the viewer that the Vs are evil, they still think we need to see the alien queen from Victoria's secret do her Snidely Whiplash smile lest we think she really does want to give us clean energy and cancer cures.

Argh.

Now, I don't think either show is quite so bad, over-all, as he paints them (*). But, on the specifics he mentions, and others of that sort, I cannot but agree.

No! Wait! On the "fat bearded guy" on 'FlashForward' being offed, I thought that was so deserved and well-done.

(*) I don't have a TV, much less cable, but I've watched them on the Hulu site. And, comparing the shows to what I remember watching on TV as I was growing up, shows which aired for years, I'd have to say that these shows are quality TV.

This doesn't come as a surprise

This doesn't come as a surprise to me, but I expect that it does come as a surprise to most persons who want to believe that some day a computer program will be exactly equivalent to a human mind.

And, I expect that it does come as a surprise to most persons who want to believe that the 'Avida' computer program really does prove Darwinism. [The link I have no longer works, else I could point Gentle Reader to an instance of a doctrinaire evolutionist using just this -- then hypothetical, and to him apparently almost unimaginable -- example in a desperate attempt to evade the impact of my argument against the claims being advanced for the 'Avida' computer program.]

Slate: I'll Be Bach -- A computer program is writing great, original works of classical music. Will human composers soon be obsolete?

Now, though I've long expected something like this, and while as a computer programmer applaud the skill and expertise of writing such a program, I still think this would have been better left undone.

Understand, this can't even touch upon what differentiates a mind from an algorithm; it just offends my aesthetic sensibilities (and I’m only mildly interested in classical music -- you know, I think that the reason I detest most modern classical music is that the stuff that is lionized sounds as though it were written to a very bad formula; discordant sounds, but no music).

Still, when one considers pop music, haven't we been listening to mediocre "by the numbers" music for decades? So, perhaps, I'm wrong that this is Not A Good Thing -- perhaps the concept can be adapted to the generation of pop music and the mediocre part can be dropped out.

Vox Day's Problem

In a recent post on his blog, "Vox Day" demonstrates, right out in front of God and all the angels, what his problem is; or, at any rate, what a major one of them is. I'm interested to see if you, Gentle Reader, see what I'm getting at prior to me explicitly spelling out what I mean. And, it shouldn't be too difficult, as only a handful of sentences in the post are his sentences.

"Vox Day:" A wish list


update:
And, for contrast, here is "Vox Day" not displaying "The Trouble with Vox Day:" Mailvox: a humble request

You will not believe this!

Toronto woman sues [phone carrier] after her affair is exposed

Auster on Brewer

Lawrence Auster concerning Janice Brewer: "Brewer's rather colorful maiden name was Janice Kay Drinkwine. So, she went from being a wine drinker to a brewer. Whatever she's drinking, as Lincoln said of Grant, let's find out what it is, because I want to send a barrel of it to every elected official in the country."

Anti-Tipping Manifesto

I don't tip ... and neither should you!

My opposition to tipping, and hence my refusal to tip, is something I worked out 25 to 30 years ago. I've just never yet written up an "anti-tipping manifesto."

First, the immediate background on what prompts me to write up and post this "manifesto" --

Recently, on Facebook, a friend from college (to date us, that was nigh-on 35 years ago) said, joking:

[Concerning] my new haircut and beard trim. The barber said I was starting look like Trotsky. There went his tip...

After some back-and-forth, I said:

You could just do like I do and decline to tip *anyone* -- tipping is a degrading and anti-American custom ... and a scam

Nancy Hartley said:

I don't know you Troy, but if you were a waiter/waitress working for far less than minimum wage and tips were considered part of your salary you might rethink your attitude.

To which I replied:

No, I wouldn't

And, in fact, I have worked those sorts of jobs (and also the fast-food types where no one ever thinks to tip, because there isn't someone telling them they're "supposed" to), both when I was in college and afterward because I wanted more money (for a while, but the added stress wasn't worth the money to me). I've received exactly one tip in my life -- $5 on the very first pizza I delivered as a freshman, ant the pizza itself didn't cost much more than the $5 -- and I *tried* to turn it down, but the guy was drunk, so rather than anger him I finally kept it. The point here is that even before I'd worked out what is wrong with tipping, the whole concept made me uncomfortable.

Come to think of it, I suppose one could say I did receive a few other "tips" -- some women (and a man or two) flashing a bit too much skin, and under-garments, at me when I made the delivery. What? I'm gonna give you a discount (paid for out of my pocket!) because you show me your tits? Which I never even asked to see!

I also recall hearing, and being disgusted by, my sister-in-law ranting because "some guy shafted her," meaning that he didn't give her as much extra (and potentially unreported) income as she figured was her due.

Anyway, Bill (the old friend) said:

you don't tip Troy???? Degrading?? I have a very dear and close friend who works for Otterbein, put herself thru school there it took 11 yrs and she used to be a full time waitress at Bob Evans and now works there part time. Sometimes to help her husband out he's in construction, she'll work 7 days a week all winter. She would give you the shirt off her back and is one of the funniest people i know. She loved my mom too. I can not ever ever think of not tipping her and in cash because BE will take taxes out. She has worked for BE for over 25 yrs and is just now making more then any wait staff at $3.15 an hour, most make a dollar less then that. I always tip at least 20% to anyone even if they are rude to me or I get bad service, you don't what kind of day they're having. I think it's totall unchristain not to tip and inhuman as well.

Nancy Hartley said:

Well said Bill. There are many, many people out there, especially in today's economy, that appreciate our Christian attitude.

Nancy Hartley said:

Troy, my apoligies to you. I did not mean to offend you, if I did, with my message. It is so easy to say things in this format without even knowing the person. One of the few dangers of this advancing technological age.

I have no idea how she turned a terse "No, I wouldn't" into that I took insult. *sigh* I'm a man; men tend to be terse; I am frequently very terse -- the alternative being very verbose, as here.

I said (to Nancy Hartley):

Actually, Bill's near-tirade wasn't "well-said," it was emotive and apropos of nothing I'd said. Tipping is not "Christian." It's degrading, demeaning, insulting ... and it's also a racket

Bill said:

why would paying someone a living wage be degrading troy and it's up to me to believe what is christian or not, that is between me and my higher power. i believe you get out of this life what you give, not tipping comes across as being cheap and selfish. you work for tips every time you service the public, i feel sorry for your wait staff. but I love you no matter what you think or feel Troy and you have the right to your opinion even if I don't agree.

I said:

Bill, if you thought I was coldly logical 30 years ago, I can assure you that I am even more myself now than I was then.

To explain a bit more -- back in those days, some of my friends (including Bill) would express the opinion that I was sometimes "too logical." As though such a thing is possible! Also, in those days, out of friendship, I would bite my tongue when some silly-minded liberal (I'm looking at you, Bill) would accuse me of being "closed-minded" for sticking with the opinions I'd started with ... you know, same as they were doing. I don't bite my tongue any more.

=====
Now, for that "manifesto," for the explanation of why you, too, should decline to tip: "Because I'm always right, of couse!"

OK, if you really need more, let's examine the issue, point by point -- combining the two statements I quoted above, I said that "Tipping is an anti-American custom; it is not "Christian." It's degrading, demeaning, insulting ... and it's also a racket/scam."

And, by the way, I am not saying that these points are exhaustive, only that they examine what I said previously:

1a) Demeaning -- it is demeaning to live off charity. It may be that this or that person cannot avoid reliance upon charity, but it is always demeaning to one's dignity as an adult human being to be reliant upon it. Trying to put tipping into its most positive light, it is charity.

1b) Demeaning -- the second aspect of being demeaning hhich follows from the custom of tipping is reflected in Bill's joke. Now, of course, Bill was just making a joke, and his joke is not the point here. The point is that there are *are* people who use the expectation of a tip to humiliate their waiter or waitress to whatever limit they can push (and, by the way, I expect that considerably more than 50% of such jerks are women).

2) Degrading -- it is also personally degrading to live off charity and hand-outs, but the specific degradation I have in mind is of a different sort than point 1). Here, I have in mind the sort of moral-and-rational degradation which seems always to follow from believing/asserting that others owe one something which they do not, in fact, owe one:
a) such as I mentioned with my former sister-in-law ranting because a customer didn't give her the free income as she just knew was her due (and, by the way, that was reflective of her attitude toward her ex-husband's relatives);
b) or such as we are presently seeing in Europe, for instance, in Greece, where the so-called citizens are rioting to demand that the tax-payers of Germany are obligated to support the Greeks' indolent government-subsidized lifestyles;
c) or such as we are presently seeing in the US, where "public service" union thugs intimidate -- and injure -- taxpayers who object to the gravy-train.

3) Insulting -- Tipping is insulting on multiple levels (such as touched upon above); but it's also insulting that:
a) some customers imagine it is their right and/or duty to second-guess the employment agreement between an employer and his employees -- in truth, it is none of your damned business what they have mutually agreed that her work is worth to her and to his business;
b) some employers are willing to place on their customers the expectation that it is the customers' job to pay his employees some imaginary "fair living wage."

4) Racket/scam -- Tipping is racket or scam as touched upon in point 3b -- the employers and the employees are in on the scam and the marks are their customers. Do you, O Big Spender, tip everyone with whom you come in contact? No, you tip only certain ones whom someone has told you you're "supposed" to tip. Do you, O Big Spender, enquire of your prospective tipee how much she pulled down last week -- you know, does she really "deserve" that big tip because she's so "underpaid?" No, you don't.

Then, there is the temptation to tax-cheating and/or unfairness of it all -- there is the temptation (and the ease of doing so) to not declare all one's tips ... and there is the tax-law assumption that the waiters pull down x% in tips, such that even if he or she doesn't, their employer is still required to tax them on the assumption that they did.

5) Anti-American -- is it really necessary to explain the above is anti-American?

6) not Christian -- is it really necessary to explain the above is not Christian?


Perhaps, later, I'll add some more touching upon the things Bill and Nancy Hartley said; and perhaps explain the labels under which I've categorized this post.

The Lightworker's Prayer

The Lightworker's Prayer --

Our Zero, Who art The Won:
Hollow be Thy Fame;
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done, in earth as it is in Europe;
Ration this day our health care needs,
and forgive us our carbon debt
as we demonize the "racists" who protest compounding unpayable Debt;
And lead us not into "anti-Government" demonstrations,
but deliver us from Tea Bagg ... er, Partiers;
For Thine is the Hope'n'Change, and the Mandate, and the Nobel, forever.
Amen.

update:
The title of the "prayer" is a reference to this; the content of the "prayer" is reference both to some of the over-the-top adulation of "The One" and to some of the political viciousness of the Partisans of the Ass.

This is the version history, so to speak; Gentle Reader is free to decide what works and what doesn't:

Our Zero, Who art The Won:
Hollow be Thy Fame;
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done, in earth as it is in Europe;
Ration this day our health care,
and forgive us our carbon dioxide
and forgive us our carbon debt
as we demonize those who speak against You;
as we demonize those who ask to see Your Birth Certificate;
as we demonize those who protest compounding unpayable Debt;
as we demonize the "racists" who protest compounding unpayable Debt;
And lead us not into thinking for ourselves,
And lead us not into questioning Your Policies,
And lead us not into "anti-Government" demonstrations,
but deliver us from Rush Limbaugh;
but deliver us from Tea Bagg ... er, Partiers;
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever.
For Thine is the Imperium, and the Mandate, and the Nobel, forever.
For Thine is the Hope'n'Change, and the Mandate, and the Nobel, forever.
Amen.

I wasn't totally satisfied with the last line being straight-up, as in the original version; changing it lead to these other changes.

I Can't Believe I Missed It!

Oh, my goodness! Here it is, May 11, and I've just realized that I missed celebrating "Quatro de Cinco," the new holiday promulgated by Our Zero, The Won.

I propose that right-thinking Americans ought to ensure that "Quatro de Cinco" becomes and remains a cultural icon.