Arming 12 Year Olds

In the news this past week was the story of a 12 year old girl that shot an intruder to her home in self defense.

A day off for fall break was anything but relaxing for a 12-year old Bryan County girl, when an intruder broke into her home on Michael Avenue.

Deputies say, the girl was home alone when a man she'd never seen before, rang the front doorbell. They say when no one answered the door, the man went around to the back of the house and kicked a door open. That's when authorities say, the girl grabbed a gun and hid in a bathroom closet.

The right person came out on top in this instance.  One should shudder at the possibilities after an grown man gets hold of an unarmed 12 year old girl.

While no one should wish for such a young girl to find herself in such a position, everyone should be glad that she was able to fend off her attacker.

[a day or so later]

Call this another one where a few moments of reflection would be wise.

I'm not suggesting that we arm 12 year olds.  I also wonder about parents that leave guns loose where 12 year olds can find them.  I believe the phrase "it just ain't right" was invented for such things.

However, we don't know....

• the girl
• her family (were they among the working poor?  did they spend the babysitting money on drugs?)
• the neighborhood where they live (leaving the home may not have been a good option)
• their access to decent childcare/supervision ($3 an hour for childcare is a killer if you only make $11 an hour.
• if something unusual happened where she was left alone (she expect to be met by an adult and wasn't)
• if she was taught firearms safety (that's good parenting)
• if she was taught firearms usage (also good parenting)
• if her folks were ordinary, law abiding citizens
• if her folks were drug dealers
• or anything else about the circumstances

My sole point is to indicate that guns are used for legitimate self defense purposes.  More frequently than the ideologues that want to curtail gun rights will admit.  Absent evidence that this little girl was a criminal, this was such a legitimate self defense use.

Infuriating Muslims

Recent news suggests that while terrorist jihadis are a problem, they are not the only problem.  Perhaps they are not the biggest problem.

While China remains a communist nation, that government does not practice the brutal form of communism used by Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, and similarly "enlightened intellectuals".  Yet those government apparatchiks still cling to the notion that individual belief is a suitable subject for government interference and direction.

Muslims living in China's western provinces have long been brutalized by China's government despite being overwhelmingly peaceful.  While they cling to the idea of an independent state, they do not act on this belief in any meaningful way.

But Beijing insists that there can be but one thought on this subject; subservience and acceptance of China's rule.  Their way of dealing with peaceful Muslims?

They burn the Muslim's mosque to the ground.  As with the Buddhists of Tibet, the Muslims of the western reaches of China have an absolute right of conscience; to believe in their religion without interference from the state.  The reaction of those Muslims was predictable and justified.

While an American government indebted to the Chinese government may find it tough to criticize such savagery, I do not. Communism....a slightly less brutal form of communism....is still alive in the world and a threat to any who profess a love of individual liberty.

Changing The Game

Terrorism has long been funded by petro-dollars.  Ironically or otherwise, the oil barons of the Middle East have sold us oil and then funneled a portion of those profits into organizations like Al Qaida.

Now we find that the recent energy boom in the U.S. due to new technologies for recovering shale oil have caused us to increase production.  The increase is enough that we may surpass Saudi oil production before the decade is over.

It is possible that other nations with significant shale reserves may follow in our footsteps.

Which would leave the Saudis with far fewer oil consumers and far more oil exporting competitors.

Good.  Let 'em eat sand for a while.

Who Is Jerome Silberman?

Gene Wilder.

A great interview of Gene by Ernie Manouse.

Professionalize! Federalize?

I don't know much about this chap, Alex Jones.  But it appears as though he has poked the TSA one too many times.  As a result, he is harassed by TSA agents every time he flies.

I seem to recall that some Democrats were making the assertion that "when you federalize, you professionalize" during the debates over the formation of the TSA.

This is apparently what the TSA considers to be "professional" conduct.  They are doing it wrong.  Trust me.

Book Anti-Recommendation - Why We Suck

If you read about a book here, then you should assume that I found reading it to be reasonably enjoyable.  I read a lot of things that are not necessarily very satisfying to me.  I don't talk about those disappointing reads because someone else might find them to be very enjoyable.

There are good reasons for different literary genres.

I picked up Denis Leary's "Why We Suck" at a used book store.  I like Mr. Leary's comedy.  I enjoy most of his television and movie roles.  He tends to be fairly libertarian in his outlook, so I figured that there would be moments of intense enjoyment and perhaps some modest validation.

And there were a some of both inside.  There were other sections that came from a more challenging perspective.  None of us ever agrees on everything.  So onward I read.

Until he started taking potshots at kids with mental and developmental handicaps.  There are somethings I just can't do.  Cracking wise about kids with those kinds of challenges is one of them.

I understand the larger point he was trying to make.  There are some kids...hell, even some adults...that have never had to learn the sort of self control needed to successfully operate in a cooperative society.  Some folks have other social difficulties.  The "Revenge of the Nerds" franchise is a pretty good example of otherwise normal people that have some social issues.

But Mr. Leary distinctly does not differentiate the target of his criticism from kids with some more serious issues.  The word "retard" is frowned upon for school aged kids.  Adults should simply know better.

And so his book is due to presently join the rest of the refuse in my garbage can.  I can think of no more appropriate disposition for it.

At least I bought it used.

The Record

I try to keep the titles for each entry by turns entertaining, obscure, and tempting in case that is all someone gets before they visit.  By the time some folks are done, I image that some will think of "record" as in a "broken record" that skips will think of a "record" as in a "broken record" that skips will think of a "record" as in a "broken record" that skip.

Ahem.  Where was I?

My digital basket of interesting items includes some things from before the election.  With Mr. Obama's second inauguration barely a day a way, I thought this might be an interesting time to look at his justification for re-election.

An article from Investor's Business Daily lays it out pretty well.  In summary:

1) He claims that Bush era tax cuts and deregulation caused the 2008 recession.

The record would suggest otherwise.

2)  His policies stopped another Great Depression.

Again, the data suggests that the recovery started before his policies were enacted.  Heck, the worst of the damage occurred before he was sworn into office!

3)  His policies are working.

Except, they aren't.  The economy is still sluggish.  His policies discourage investment in the U.S. that is needed to get us going full tilt again.  I talk to business owners and managers all the time and hear how they could be doing more, but won't until the current tax and spend environment ends.

4)  A slow recovery was inevitable.

Except that historically, the deeper the recession, the quicker the recovery.  Given how deep the recession was....and it was very deep....we should have zoomed out of it by now.  It is hard to zoom when you have an anchor shackled to your ankles.

5)  Nobody could have done better.

See item 4.  Every President coming out of a recession has done better.

One hopes that Presidential hubris will not delay a strong recovery any further.  That would represent real change, and progress to move us....forward, Mr. President.

Real World Translation

While this might seem like political "red meat", I do think this is a great summary of Mr. Obama's recent pronouncements on executive orders regarding gun sales.  I could summarize the summary as being multiple instances of:

• Tell government officials and agencies to do their jobs
• Waste money doing things that private agencies already do, and do better than government agencies.
• Spend money, sometimes without an obvious benefit
• Pretend that the ACA doesn't say what it actually says

The first one on the list is really very frustrating.  We have plenty of gun laws.  But they are not enforced.  We have plenty of policies.  But government agencies elect not to follow them.

Yet when a tragedy occurs, all we hear is a hue and cry for more gun regulations.  Why?

Or better yet, why not try using the current regulations and laws to do what we said needed to be done after the previous incidents?

One of the tools that federal prosecutors have is the ability to get felons convicted of gun crimes sentenced to facilities that are no where near their families.  I read about a prosecutor in either West Virginia or Virginia (I think) that was making full use of that law.  As as result, crimes committed with guns were down in this individual's area.

It seems that while the criminals were willing to commit crimes, they were unwilling to commit crimes that would keep them far from their families for extended periods of time.

Which might also suggest that we inconvenience them in other ways while they are incarcerated, but that is probably a discussion for another day.

So What Happens When...

...you take your boyfriend home to meet the family.

In Utah.  Where your family are Mormons.  And also Mexicans.

You might lose your cell phone on the way home from the airport with your boyfriend.  After announcing the loss to a couple of family members, you find the phone.

And when a family member calls hoping that someone will have found the phone, you might impetuously thrust your phone into your boyfriend's hands and tell him to pretend that he is a homeless person that has found this phone and that he lives at the end of the alley behind Arby's, behind a dumpster.

You might think that this sort of hijinks would end well.  But no.

Getting to the end is pretty damned funny though.

Head on over to The Moth and hear Elna Baker fill in the details.

Weather Vs. Climate

The news has infrequently indicated that our friends in Europe and Asia are having a brisk winter this year.  This is in stark contrast with the constant news reports about 2012 being the warmest year on record for the continental United States.

Since late November the country has shivered at an average of minus 3.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees colder than the previous average, and the chilliest in 28 years, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday, citing the China Meteorological Administration.

So what is my point?  Simply that our media tends to focus on weather stories that support their general narrative.  In this case, stories that support the narrative that human activity are the primary force behind increasing global temperatures get pushed to the top of the heap.  These stories are prominently placed regardless of whether or not the weather they report really has anything to do with the larger issues of climate science.

Conversely, those that undermine the narrative are pushed aside.

What does it mean when the U.S. has the warmest year on record, but Asia and Europe go through a colder than normal winter?  Beats me.  We had a warm one.  They are in the midst of a cold one.  You suppose they might cancel one another out on a global basis?  I suppose they might.

But the better conclusion is that it is far more important to get news in a complete context.

You Mean Walter Is A Girl?

At least in this case:

A Georgia mother hid her two 9-year-old twins and shot an intruder, Paul Ali Slater, several times during a home invasion on Friday, according to multiple media reports.

The deaths of all those kids in Newtown, CT were a stark tragedy.

The deaths of that young woman and her twin children would have been no less of a tragedy.  It was averted by a woman with modest skills needed to defend her family from a committed and experienced criminal.

Fortunately, she also possessed the only tool that would have enabled her to put those skills into action.

It is regrettable that the many lives saved by guns each year are not weight weighed equally in the balance when the folks that want to ban guns get busy waving bloody shirts to justify curtailing our civil rights.

Book Recommendation - In The Name Of Rome

Adrian Goldworthy wrote "In The Name Of Rome" in 2003.  This tome presents the history of Roman military leaders that built and maintained the Roman Empire.

He tells the stories of political intrigue surrounding the selection of consuls that led the Roman army.  He presents the movement, battle skills and maneuvers they developed on their way to victory.

From a military history as well as a general military perspective, the book was a pleasant read.  The details were not so fascinating as to remain glued in my mind, so we are all lucky to be spared a longer recitation of those details.

However, the book did present one overarching narrative that I think is relevant to modern America.

At the beginning of the Roman Empire, serving in the army was considered to be a duty of every Roman citizen.  It was considered to be a near qualifying duty for those that wanted to hold power back in Rome.

This perspective changed over the course of the Empire.  Eventually, the military was formed with significant numbers from the outlying provinces.  Rome's leading citizens were too busy generating and consuming wealth to spend any significant portion of their lives defending the source of their relative liberty.

That sort of thing was farmed out to lesser men and foreigners.

This condition was one of the factors that led to the eventual demise of the Roman Empire.

When a nation can no longer persuade not only her citizens, but specifically her leading citizens to invest of themselves in that nation's defense, then that nation will shortly cease to exist.  Or at least it will cease to have the power and influence that it once enjoyed.

Robert Heinlein has suggested that there is a link between rights and responsibility as well as a link between responsibility and authority.  Each cannot exist unless it is in balance with the other.  Before one assumes political authority over others, one must submit completely to that same authority.  Where else can such complete submission occur but in the military?


In modern America, the trend for service in our military is for people from the central and southern states to serve.  Those from the seats of power....New York, LA, the New England areas...serve at a far lower rate.  Those that seek civilian and corporate leadership rarely send their children to serve as well.  We also routinely recruit from pools of immigrants as well as foreigners that apply to serve at our embassies around the world.

What will our future be if we cannot inspire future generations to see our nation as being worthy of the sacrifice of military service?  History does not suggest a positive outcome.

For those with an appreciation of military history, western civilization, and military tactics, "In The Name Of Rome" is a splendid book.

So What Happens When...

...your credit card gets stolen.

Well you hope the bank will stop the continuing theft.  Banks are pretty good about that these days.

And you might find some online purchases.  Unusual purchases.  Surprisingly, these unusual purchases had been shipped to someplace reasonably nearby.

Suddenly, it occurs to you that the last transaction where you gave someone your card number (as opposed to swiping it in person) was when you ordered pizza over the phone.  Putting two and two together, you visit the pizzeria with the intent of tracking down the miscreant that had just wrecked your life.

Instead you end up talking to the manager during the middle of the afternoon.  Then the mother of all coincidences occurs; the manager has to answer the phone to take a delivery order.  And the caller is using your credit card number to pay for your pizza.

Head on over to The Moth's website and listen to the rest of the story from Tristan Jimerson.

It just gets better and better.

They Never Attacked Us!

Flash! NY Times Discovers Germans Did Not Attack Pearl Harbor 

New York Times headline September 4, 1946:

Nothing to add.  Give it a go if you have a head for history.

A Great Beer

Or at least a bunch of great beer commercials.

Misogyny on parade in some cases....but pretty funny nonetheless.

A Christmas Qulting

2012 was a pretty busy quilting year for me.  And the pay off, such as it was, came on Christmas.  I have made many quilts for friends and family, but I had not made any for my immediate, immediate family, other than for my beloved bride.

Four family members received quilts this year on Christmas Day.  I'll be posting individual entries for each quilt shortly.

Media Antics - NPR Edition

I was listening to the Diane Rehm show last Friday.  There was a discussion about defense priorities and relations in the Middle East and southern Asia.  There was a part of the discussion where the panelists were discussing future troop strength in Afghanistan and a number of options were presented.

One of the panelists suggested that Mr. Obama would probably work towards the middle option.

The asshat of the panel chimed in with "As he does on every issue."  A classic example of why Ms. Rehm needs a staff "truth detector" for her program.  Whenever things get a little....thick, shall we say....the "truth detector" would fire off a klaxon or two to let the audience know that the discussion has significantly deviated from reality.

'Cause the reality is that while Mr. Obama has taken a centrist position on some issues, he has taken some pretty leftist positions on others.  Health care comes to mind.  Deficit spending and taxation are also areas where he is well left of the center of American political opinion.

I genuinely enjoy listening to NPR.  Mostly.

But it is instances like this that make me not only want to end federal subsidies for NPR, but to levy confiscatory taxes on the organization so we can recoup the money wasted on them in years past.

My Nickel Done Shrunk

Perhaps to be subtitled "A Modest Victory Over Procrastination".

A few months ago I posted an item about the arrest of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula; the film maker who produced the noted anti-Islam video.

The short version is that I saw that act as being potentially one of censorship.  The longer version...well we'll get to that in due course.

A Champion Redux - Almost!

As we approach kick off for tonight's BCS football championship, it might be a good idea to recall the history between these two teams.  Specifically, the 1966 Notre Dame 9-0-1 championship season where Alabama finished the season undefeated.

The lone tie for Notre Dame came against Michigan State University.  MSU was using a talented athlete courtesy of the recommendation of Paul "Bear" Bryant, coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

As was the case for all football championships of the era, the 1966 championship was decided by sports writers and coaches rather than on the field.  It was a beauty contest.

This year we have a live football game to determine the outcome.  The coach for Alabama is Nick Saban.  Nick coached at Michigan State University for several years. 

Ironic, no?

Also consider this, there were two undefeated teams in college football this year.  One was Notre Dame.  The other was Ohio State.  If Alabama defeats Notre Dame tonight, then Ohio State will be the only undefeated team this year.  And there is one national championship award that is not obligated to go to the BCS game winner. 

It could...realistically....be awarded to Ohio State.

Enjoy the game!

Wire Suppliers Rejoice

This is being written on the 30th of December, 2012.

On this morning's talking heads show on CBS, Peggy Noonan offered the following observation.  Paraphrasing, she was a bit disappointed that Mr. Obama has not shown any interest in building bridges with the Republicans in Congress.  She indicated that Mitch McConnell, a leader of the GOP in the U.S. Senate had spoken with the President a few days prior and that this was the first conversation between the two since late November.

Ms. Noonan suggested that this is part of a larger pattern of behavior by Mr. Obama to prefer brinksmanship over building relationships that permit cooperation.  Other panelists largely agreed with that perspective.

I hope that as you are reading this, we have some sort of real solution that includes much needed spending cuts.

However, given Mr. Obama's lengthy history, I am sure that wire suppliers have no need to doubt their profitability for the next four years.  We will be "down to the wire" on some other issue in short order.  Courtesy of an intransigent President.