Tag: You Can’t Cure Stupid

A Look at Things to Come

Things are not looking good for this country. The rate of unemployment continues to increase, the police state continues to expand, and now the average life expectancy is decreasing for certain individuals:

For generations of Americans, it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the country’s least-educated whites, an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990.

Researchers have long documented that the most educated Americans were making the biggest gains in life expectancy, but now they say mortality data show that life spans for some of the least educated Americans are actually contracting. Four studies in recent years identified modest declines, but a new one that looks separately at Americans lacking a high school diploma found disturbingly sharp drops in life expectancy for whites in this group. Experts not involved in the new research said its findings were persuasive.

This is merely the beginning. First the life expectancy of the poor decreases and soon the average life expectancy across the board will begin to decrease. We cannot sustain our combination of an ever more regulated healthcare market, unhealthy eating habits, and lack of exercise forever. Reality is a harsh bitch who eventually catches up with people who continuously make bad decisions.

Destroying Evidence

A gun buyback program is a great way to destroy evidence:

Because the guns are destroyed and not tested, it’s impossible to know if any of them were ever used in crimes, Sheppard said.

“That’s part of the offer, we’re not going to check it for anything, we destroy it,” he said. “As part of our offer to bring the guns in, we’re saying there will be no questions asked. There will be no investigation about where the gun came from and what it was used for.”

Which is probably why inmates convicted of murder and other gun-related crimes were more than happy to raise money for a gun buyback:

A group of Orleans Correctional Facility inmates — some incarcerated for murder and other gun-related crimes — raised $1,050 in the prison to pay for the buyback. About 100 inmates participated in the program, raising just dollars per day, and have been dubbed the Civic Duty Initiative Team.

They are probably trying to help ensure fellow murders don’t end up in the click with them. The state continues to claim that gun buyback programs get dangerous weapons off of the streets but in reality they are effective at destroying evidence of gun-related crimes. If somebody murders another person with a gun they know they can dispose of the evidence, namely the firearm, by taking it to a gun buyback program and having the state dispose of the evidence. On the other hand if a criminal is in possession of a gun that isn’t evidence in a crime they will have no motivation to surrender it to the state. Why give the state a useful tool for your trade?

Making Mountains Out of Mole Hills

An enterprising individual has decided to open up a gun range with an attached lounge that serves liquor. As you can imagine the anti-gun crowd are up in arms:

WSB-TV reports that Lakeside Guns Shop owner Kristina Brown plans to open the multimillion-dollar indoor range with her husband in Powder Springs. And when it comes to being state of the art, the Governor’s Gun Club will not only have the best technology available to marksmen, it will also have Maker’s Mark.

[…]

However, some residents are skeptical, especially with a housing subdivision being built just 100 yards from the new range.

“I mean, that’s just stupid,” Traci Hart, mother of three, told the station. “We don’t need drunk people running around in and out of the neighborhood.”

Because those individuals couldn’t get drunk at any other bar in the area? Think McFly! Other people are concerned that drunk people will be firing guns at this new range, a worry that is entirely pointless:

Brown sent WSB-TV a statement clarifying that once someone has ordered a drink in the lounge, they will not be permitted to enter the firing range:

“Customers will have to order a drink with their identification card and once the card is accepted, and flagged, they cannot be checked back into the range that day,” the statement reads.

Common sense would lead anybody to realize that the owner of a gun range isn’t going to want drunk people firing guns. Alcohol and firearms are dangerous when combined so anybody who owns a combination firing range and liquor lounge is going to have a vested interest in keeping the customers from the liquor lounge away from the gun range.

The Truth Hurts

Mitt Romney recently made a statement that 47% of Americans, those currently dependent on the state, will vote for Obama no matter what. Needless to say Romney’s opponents are in a tizzy over this statement. As much as I hate the man I have to agree with Jeffery Tucker:

Cover the kids’ ears! Hide their eyes! Shuffle the weak and frail from the room! A politician running for president has uttered a heresy that brings into question the holy grail of democratic politics. Romney has failed to pretend as if the country is one big happy family that uses our glorious voting system to discover ever better ways of governing ourselves.

Which is to say that Romney made a gaffe.

You know the definition of a political gaffe: inadvertent and unscripted truth. That’s what the supposed scandal of Romney’s off-the-cuff comments amounts to. He told potential donors an unvarnished truth that everyone knows but which is not part of the official civic creed of the land of the free:

Nobody wants to hear the truth. Romney, after stating the truth (probably for the first time ever), is being lambasted. People are up in arms. How dare Romney point out that a large portion of the American population is receiving government subsidies?

We really need to look at the current situation in America for what it is, the inevitable side effect of democracy:

The implied model here is that modern democracy is a system that enables mass confiscation of wealth by some from others. And who can doubt it? In older monarchical systems, only a tiny elite was privileged to steal from everyone else, and if they stole too much, people would get angry and overthrow them.

Democracy solved the problem by granting everyone the privilege once reserved to elites. Now we can all steal from each other, and even from ourselves. This way, it is no longer clear who the enemy is. We don’t know whom to blame when things get bad. There is no one to overthrow but ourselves.

Democracy has ensured that a large potion of the population is currently taking wealth from another portion. This is the reality that Americans either want to ignore or sugarcoat. I think I’m starting to understand why politicians always lie, when they actually tell the truth they’re crucified by the public. Come to think about it the public’s reaction to the truth is understandable as well. Whether you want to call this country a representative republic or a democracy the people feel they are in charge so when an ill is pointed out they take it as an accusation that they’ve personally screwed up. Considering that fact it’s no surprise that lies are now preferred over truth.

Pay Not Based on Results

In this time of economic hardship the teacher union in Chicago has decided to go on strike:

As many as 26,000 teachers were expected to stay away, with picket lines forming around the city.

About 350,000 students were affected by the strike in the nation’s third-largest district.

The walkout was called after all-day talks broke down on Sunday, following months of negotiations.

The two sides met again on Monday to continue negotiations, but failed to reach a settlement, meaning the strike will extend into at least a second day.

“This is not a strike I wanted,” the mayor said. “It’s unnecessary, it’s avoidable and it’s wrong.”

School officials said they had doubled the pay rise offered, for a total of 16% over four years.

“This is about as much as we can do,” Chicago school board chief David Vitale told the Chicago Tribune. “There is only so much money in the system.”

Considering the drop out rate in Chicago is roughly 40% I see no reason to give the teachers any raise. In fact I would argue they should have their paid decreased to reflect the poor job they’re doing at creating an environment where students want to come and learn.

More of the Same

During the Democratic National Convention (DNC) Dianne Feinstein announced that she was going to continue being bigoted towards gun owners:

Dianne Feinstein announced Wednesday that she’s re-entering the battle over gun control during her keynote speech to the California delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

[…]

She promised California delegates she’d return to Congress to reintroduce “an updated assault weapons bill.”

At the delegates’ breakfast, she said that, “Weapons of war do not belong on our streets, in our classrooms, in our schools or in our movie theatres.”

Bigotry is irrational so it’s not surprising to see Feinstein invalidate her own argument for introducing a new “assault” weapon ban. Specifically she stated that, “Weapons of war do not belong on our streets, in our classrooms, in our schools or in our movie theatres.” In many states it’s illegal to carry long arms of any sort unless they are unloaded and in a locked case. There is a federal prohibition against carrying firearms into public schools so one cannot legally bring an “assault” weapon into a classroom. Many theaters, including most of the theaters in the Twin Cities, post notification against carry weapons on the property. Each of the locations she mentioned have currently established restrictions (some are prohibitions left up to the property owner while others are legal prohibitions) against carrying “assault” weapons within. If current gun control laws have failed to stop weapons from entering gun-free zones how will passing more gun control laws change anything?

Feinstein is so obsessed with her crusade against gun owners that she doesn’t even see the fallacy in her own arguments.

Apparently I’m Dirty Harry

It would seem that, according to the New York Times, I’m Dirty Harry:

That’s right, according to the New York Times, I care one of the most deadly handgun calibers on today’s market:

The pistol used by a disgruntled designer to kill a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building on Friday is among the more lethal handguns on the American firearms market.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the shooter, Jeffrey T. Johnson, 58, used a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol that held eight rounds.

Whereas Jeffrey Johnson carried a 1911 that held eight .45 rounds I carry a Glock 30SF, which holds 11 .45 rounds. How a low velocity 100 year-old cartridge can be one of the more lethal cartridges on a market with the .357 magnum, .44 magnum, and .50 action express is beyond me. What I do know is that the stupidity didn’t stop there:

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re probably not going to be able to hit the broad side of a barn with it,” said Joseph F. King, a former United States Customs Service special agent. But, he added, “If you can put a round in center mass of the body, or the head, he’s probably not going to make it.” The firearm, powerful as it may be, is not the subject of much of the debate about gun control.

Really? So if I shoot somebody in the head with a .45 they likely won’t make it but if I hit them in the head with a 9mm they’ll be hunky dory? Is that what King is trying to say? Because if it is he’s a bloody idiot.

Brazil Central Bankers Go on Strike

The irony can barely be described in words:

The central bank union is demanding an average pay increase of 23 percent to compensate for inflation since June 2008, Belsito said. The union may call a longer strike later this month, he added.

Brazil’s central bank likes to play many of the same games as the United States central bank. The Brazilian central bank enjoys printing money and fractional reserve banking. In fact the Brazilian central bank recently dropped the reserve requirement in the hopes of boosting automobile loans. Needless to say a drop in reserve requirement is actually a grant of permission from the main central bank to the lower banks to counterfeit more.

Now that the employees of Brazil’s central bank are suffering the consequences of their employer’s actions they are demanding a wage increase. Perhaps they can remain on strike indefinitely, cripple the central bank’s operations, and help prevent inflation from increasing.

Compounding Stupidity

Todd Akins basically destroyed his political campaign by saying one of the dumbest things spouted by a would-be politician:

Asked if he would like abortion to be banned even if a pregnancy was the result of rape, the 65-year-old replied: “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare.

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

“But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”

I’m not sure if Akins is legitimately stupid enough to believe woman rarely get pregnant from “legitimate” rape (I wonder what “illegitimate” rape is), mentally deranged, or so invested in his moral crusade that he’s willing to outright lie. Since he’s a politician I’m betting the latter is most likely the case but I digress.

After being handed this on a silver platter what do you think Obama does? Makes a hypocritical statement:

Mr. Obama tried to tie the comments more broadly to views of the Republican Party.

“Rape is rape,” Mr. Obama said. “And the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we’re talking about doesn’t make sense to the American people and doesn’t make sense to me. What I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians – the majority of whom are men – making decisions” about women’s health.

Emphasis mine. All Obama had to say was, “Akins is a fucking idiot.” He could have used those exact words and nobody would have held it against him. Instead he comes out and rightly condemns Akins but then makes a hypocrite of himself by saying politicians shouldn’t be making decisions about women’s health even though he wants the government to control the healthcare market.

Obviously Obama’s statement wasn’t nearly as offense as Akins’s but you would think the president would be smart enough to condemn Akins without also arguing against his own political beliefs. Oh well, it’s just another pointless drama-filled episode of Politics: The Reality Television Show for Suckers.

The Inevitable Outcome of Attempting to Rob a Gun Store

In general gun stores are heavily armed and the owners rarely tolerate shenanigans like trying to drive a car through their storefront:

One man is dead and two are recovering after being shot by a gun store owner during a burglary of his business Thursday morning.

Stephen Bayazes Jr., 57, told officers that he and his wife were asleep in an apartment at the back of the business, Guns & Ammo Gunsmith, 522 Edgefield Road, shortly before 4 a.m. when he awoke after hearing a loud crash and the activation of a silent alarm.

Bayazes grabbed an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and found three men loading guns into a van that had crashed through the side wall of the store.

After hearing the men yell to kill him, Bayazes shot one 30-round magazine of .223-caliber bullets before retreating to his bedroom to reload, he later told officers.

Obviously these criminals were rocket scientists. This story also answers the gun control advocate’s question regarding the need for AR-15s. Sometimes you have a group of criminals who drive their van through your storefront and having semi-automatic rifle is pretty useful.