"You cannot have a smoothly functioning animal kingdom without the predators."
DailyPundit
20080723
Quote for the day
"I very much doubt that the highest and best use of ALMOST EVERY American for a year of his or her life is to spend it in a government program."
Jim Lindgren at VC
Jim Lindgren at VC
20080707
20080706
20080705
20080701
Even without Heller this should be interesting
and not in the sense of, "may you live in interesting times."
Once again we prepare for the Eastward hajj to worship at the shrines of our ancestors.
The pilgrimage takes us through various states whose legislative attitudes towards the right protected in DC v Heller vary from "please bring your girlfriend" to "you better be just passing through, Son."
Some places Wyff and I will be tempted to open-carry. Shall we document with digifoto?
Once again we prepare for the Eastward hajj to worship at the shrines of our ancestors.
The pilgrimage takes us through various states whose legislative attitudes towards the right protected in DC v Heller vary from "please bring your girlfriend" to "you better be just passing through, Son."
Some places Wyff and I will be tempted to open-carry. Shall we document with digifoto?
Heller thoughts
Glad I've been kicking a few dollars to IJ all of these years. Though Heller wasn't strictly Institute for Justice's case, several of Heller's lawyers are from IJ. IJ deserves some credit. And if Kelo v New London gets under your skin, send IJ some dollars. That fight isn't over either.
I have to disagree with many bloggers who see the glass as half empty. In spite of my lack of a sports chromosome, I will reach for a sports analogy. This is the second point we've scored since halftime, and the game has been running since about 1934.
I think everything is there for us to enjoy a genuine strict-scrutiny individual right. But only if we keep blocking and tackling. That will require patience and a positive attitude. It is too much to ask for one case to yield one ruling that restores that right in all of the aspects.
There is a visible path to 14th amendment incorporation. There's a visible path to eliminating the Hughes amendment. But it takes time and determination and money.
K-VAR puts it right in their email ads celebrating the DC v Heller win: "restoring the individual rights" to KBA. The rights are on track to be restored, because for most purposes those rights had been lost. We had a disastrous first half. But the game is not over.
I have to disagree with many bloggers who see the glass as half empty. In spite of my lack of a sports chromosome, I will reach for a sports analogy. This is the second point we've scored since halftime, and the game has been running since about 1934.
I think everything is there for us to enjoy a genuine strict-scrutiny individual right. But only if we keep blocking and tackling. That will require patience and a positive attitude. It is too much to ask for one case to yield one ruling that restores that right in all of the aspects.
There is a visible path to 14th amendment incorporation. There's a visible path to eliminating the Hughes amendment. But it takes time and determination and money.
K-VAR puts it right in their email ads celebrating the DC v Heller win: "restoring the individual rights" to KBA. The rights are on track to be restored, because for most purposes those rights had been lost. We had a disastrous first half. But the game is not over.
20080620
20080608
Gone and done it
Had to pull the plug on the old template. Enetation stayed awake last week long enough for me to download all of the comments from day One.
There was too much legacy junk in WUTT!'s template to allow a new commenting service to offer a place for them to go.
I'll roll the other features of the template into this new one as time allows. There may be some color changes and such also.
Meanwhile, I sat on the flight deck of a C-17 for a landing along the Columbia River yesterday. Very nice. Any readers in Benton or Franklin Counties in Wash state?
There was too much legacy junk in WUTT!'s template to allow a new commenting service to offer a place for them to go.
I'll roll the other features of the template into this new one as time allows. There may be some color changes and such also.
Meanwhile, I sat on the flight deck of a C-17 for a landing along the Columbia River yesterday. Very nice. Any readers in Benton or Franklin Counties in Wash state?
20080524
20080520
just the anime
Barbaloot and I catch SciFi network mostly for the anime, though I'd like to get her into BSG. We'd have to start at the very beginning too, cuz I've probably seen fewer whole episodes than I own 10mm pistols. She sees BSG ads and thinks it's just soap opera.
But as we watch SciFi and see what non-anime programs it offers, it reminds me of Aaron Magruder's observations of Black Entertainment Television. Few blacks, very little entertainment. BSG looks like the only real SF that SciFi has to offer. They'll need a hell of a lot more SF to offset the ghost hunting and crossing over and yeti junk they carry.
But as we watch SciFi and see what non-anime programs it offers, it reminds me of Aaron Magruder's observations of Black Entertainment Television. Few blacks, very little entertainment. BSG looks like the only real SF that SciFi has to offer. They'll need a hell of a lot more SF to offset the ghost hunting and crossing over and yeti junk they carry.
20080518
Recluse RIP
We regret to note the passing of our oldest cat, Feathers. Renal failure, over the last few months. Only last week was it visible in her behavior. We euthanized her before any indications of pain or suffering.
What we've done with the stimulus rebate, part one
Since Uncle Sugar has borrowed money for all of us bitter God-fearing masses to piss away:
6.5mm Grendel, Wolf Gold, 123gr soft points, 20 rds per carton, 25 cartons. Exactly fifty cents per round delivered. This is about all the money that will go for anything manufactured outside the US.
IJ will be getting some help, as well as some legal funds for folks trying to get or stay out of jail because of ATF abuses.
6.5mm Grendel, Wolf Gold, 123gr soft points, 20 rds per carton, 25 cartons. Exactly fifty cents per round delivered. This is about all the money that will go for anything manufactured outside the US.
IJ will be getting some help, as well as some legal funds for folks trying to get or stay out of jail because of ATF abuses.
20080501
If a red giant bursts in gamma rays, and there's no sentient life to observe it, is it a Great Filter event?
Instapundit points to an article whose author hopes, almost wishes, that there's no intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. If there were, it would somehow mean to him that a cataclysmic event, of sufficient scale to eradicate humanity, hasn't happened yet, which for him is a cause for concern.
I apologize for failing to follow the logic. It seems that a man holding the directorship of something called the Future of Humanity Institute should be more optimistic about humanity and its future, but this fellow is a downer:
It isn't a Great Filter, it's thousands of calamities, randomly scattered across space and time, and we haven't been whacked by one yet but we still can be. Only microseconds ago in geologic time have we become aware of the potential for these calamities. It will take real geologic time for us to move a significant number of ourselves sufficiently far away to be spared the greatest of these calamities.
It may be that there are hundreds or even thousands of other spacefaring civilizations out there, dead before they got out of reach of the nearest GRB. For each of them, there are millions of other extinct civilizations buried under kilometers of ice, then ground to silt when the glaciers retreated, through a hundred cycles of glaciation and thaw.
I'd be surprised to find there are more than 3 interstellar races anywhere in the Universe at any one time, but then I haven't done the math.
Arguing that we're doomed for, or safely past, some single inevitable culminating point in the development of sentience is itself a form of observation selection effect.
I apologize for failing to follow the logic. It seems that a man holding the directorship of something called the Future of Humanity Institute should be more optimistic about humanity and its future, but this fellow is a downer:
For example, it might be that any sufficiently advanced civilization discovers some technology--perhaps some very powerful weapons technology--that causes its extinction.The Universe abounds with so-called Great Filter events that have utterly nothing to do with the inevitable self-destruction of sentience, fashionable though that assertion may be. Gamma-ray bursting stars, asteroid impacts, ice ages for crissakes, any of which would roll back the calendar on our species if not obliterate it outright.
It isn't a Great Filter, it's thousands of calamities, randomly scattered across space and time, and we haven't been whacked by one yet but we still can be. Only microseconds ago in geologic time have we become aware of the potential for these calamities. It will take real geologic time for us to move a significant number of ourselves sufficiently far away to be spared the greatest of these calamities.
It may be that there are hundreds or even thousands of other spacefaring civilizations out there, dead before they got out of reach of the nearest GRB. For each of them, there are millions of other extinct civilizations buried under kilometers of ice, then ground to silt when the glaciers retreated, through a hundred cycles of glaciation and thaw.
I'd be surprised to find there are more than 3 interstellar races anywhere in the Universe at any one time, but then I haven't done the math.
Arguing that we're doomed for, or safely past, some single inevitable culminating point in the development of sentience is itself a form of observation selection effect.
20080424
drycleaning gets the smoke smell off the blazer
There's this:
Though he and I use "activist" somewhat differently.
" . . . the whole game is idiotic. Parties are supposed to pick their own nominees, and the idea ought to be for the guys on the inside who know what they're doing to come up with whoever they think has the best chance of winning the general election . . . "Is this so far from what I wrote here?
Though he and I use "activist" somewhat differently.
20080421
I'd vote for a black man
it just has to be a black man who identifies himself by his belief in the content of one's character, rather than an accident of birth. Say, Ward Connerly, or Thomas Sowell. Shelby Steele.
Ironic that the charge of bigotry so easily erupts from the mouth of people who cherish the diversity of appearance but insist upon uniformity in, even blind obedience to, dogma.
Ironic that the charge of bigotry so easily erupts from the mouth of people who cherish the diversity of appearance but insist upon uniformity in, even blind obedience to, dogma.
20080413
kick the FMG-9 up a notch
All the hullaballoo over a folding machine pistol in 9mm, we just don't get it. 9mm seems to be the caliber of choice for weird guns you can't find a mission for.
Now if MagPul chose to crank these out with a 7.62x25mm chambering and 8 inches of barrel, I'll dutifully lust for one.
Now if MagPul chose to crank these out with a 7.62x25mm chambering and 8 inches of barrel, I'll dutifully lust for one.
20080412
Getting warm but not quite there
"We are very proud of our heritage, we are proud of who we are. We are not frustrated. We are not bitter. We turn to our faith because we believe, and we hunt and fish because it is part of our culture and we enjoy it."
We own all of the terrible implements of the Soldier that we can lay our hands on, because our Republic's founders had to. They did so because their erstwhile legitimate government had taken such arms up against them.
If that makes me a rube, a hayshaker, a gaptoothed hillbilly in some circles, so be it.
We own all of the terrible implements of the Soldier that we can lay our hands on, because our Republic's founders had to. They did so because their erstwhile legitimate government had taken such arms up against them.
If that makes me a rube, a hayshaker, a gaptoothed hillbilly in some circles, so be it.
it gets better
Lunch was possible at Stubb's on my final day in Austin, thanks to broad frigging daylight. It was good but still not as good as Ironworks.
The courtesy driver at my hotel agrees.
After dark, a burger at Hut's.
The courtesy driver at my hotel agrees.
After dark, a burger at Hut's.
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