Here’s my (not terribly prescient) prediction for tomorrow’s midterm elections: The GOP will most likely gain Senate control. They will then promptly assume that they weren’t elected because people are tired of Team Blue’s fuckups, but rather that they now have some sort of mandate to double down on stupid and harp on gay marriage…
Category: masters and servants.
they can thank “blackboard jungle” for that one.
This excellent and thorough Village Voice article on the outdated, arbitrary, and capricious knife laws in New York City is about “gravity knives”, but those laws share the hallmarks of most weapons-related legislation: They were passed in an emotional atmosphere fanned by perceptions and media coverage They have little to no basis in demonstrable facts or science Their intent…
there’s no such thing as localized incompetence in politics.
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…
nothing to hide, nothing to fear, part MCVIII.
Feds seek contractor to build federal license plate reader database. Remember: if Team Us does it, it’s a sensible national security measure, and if you oppose it, you’re a paranoid nutjob and/or want the terrorists to win. If Team Them does it, it’s a totalitarian police state measure, and if you support it, you’re a…
i give it two out of five ches.
Reason.com has a nice little bit of snark on Rolling Stone Magazine’s insipid “Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For” article. For those of you who don’t want to drive up the click counter at Rolling Stone: one Jesse A. Myerson basically repackages the main pillars of the Communist Manifesto to appeal to modern-day…
click it or ticket.
Libertarian/conservative small-government fruitcake New Hampshire doesn’t have a mandatory seatbelt law for adults. The New Hampshire seatbelt use rate is 75%.* Neighboring Massachusetts, the Northeastern bastion of progressivism and Laws-Will-Fix-It-ism, has a mandatory seatbelt law. The Massachusetts seatbelt use rate is 73.20%.* Is it that we New Hampshirites have enough common sense that we don’t…
*snikt*
Back from the shop: my well-worn Benchmade 2550 automatic folder. A few months ago, the automatic opening feature turned itself off by way of the mainspring snapping in half. Due to the stupid-ass federal law on shipping switchblades across state lines, I couldn’t send it back to Benchmade to get fixed, so I tossed it…
the government shutdown diaries.
Tuesday: Day One of the government shutdown. Park rangers are furloughed. The fires from the grizzly bear riots are painting the night sky over Yellowstone bright orange. Bald eagles are ditching their tracking collars and skipping the country. WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS END *** Wednesday: Day Two of the government shutdown. They have begun to…
well, I’m glad it won’t be war-war.
Secretary of State Lurch says that the administration isn’t asking Congress for permission to go to war in Syria because bombing Syria wouldn’t be “war in the classic sense”. You know, more of a Diet War. War Light. New War. Less filling than the old kind. Trying to move goalposts by changing definitions—that’s pretty much…
reader question: what’s wrong with gun registration?
Commenter “Jarin” has a question regarding gun registration which I answered in the comments thread, but which deserves a blog post response. Jarin asks: I don’t understand what the fuss is about registration… (no, really, I don’t get it, someone please explain it). Why should we not have registration for something as easily dangerous as…