Tag: You’re Doing it Wrong

Highway Patrol Placed in Charge of Ferguson, Missouri

I guess the police operating in Ferguson went too far when they roughed up and arrested a few reporters because, well, that’s how you get reporters to cover your police state shenanigans. Now that the press is actually covering Ferguson the governor of Missouri has decided to finally step in and make it appear as though he cares by ordering the Highway Patrol to deal with the civil unrest:

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday ordered the state Highway Patrol to take over security in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb roiled by four nights of unrest over the police killing of an unarmed black teenager.

The governor moved after police came under intense criticism for their handling of the protests, including firing tear gas into crowds Wednesday night and arresting two reporters.

Now the Highway Patrol can come in looking like liberators:

Highway Patrol officers — wearing no SWAT gear — arrived in Ferguson late Thursday afternoon. Cheers greeted the announcement by the head of the patrol, Capt. Ron Johnson, over a megaphone that he and his officers were “going to march with you.”

In reality this will merely ensure that the police officers who committed violent acts against nonviolent people will go unpunished. The people of Ferguson will jump for joy that they have been liberated from the oppressive Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams and forget that those bastards should be locked in a cage like any other violent gang member. It’s a wonderful ploy that probably saved the SWAT team members’ asses.

If Mr. Nixon really gave a damn about the people of Ferguson he would have ordered the Highway Patrol to arrest every SWAT team member involved in perpetrating violence on nonviolent individuals.

What Happens When a Blind Def Man Uses the Internet

I’m lead to believe Paul Waldman is both blind and def. Why is this? Because he doesn’t believe libertarians are speaking up about what’s going down in Ferguson, Missouri:

The shooting death by police of Ferguson, MO teenager Michael Brown, and what has happened in the aftermath, has been blanketing the news for the past few days. It’s a story about race, but it’s also become a story about the power of the state and how it’s wielded, and against whom.

So my question is this: Where are the libertarians?

[…]

You would also have thought that libertarians would be using the police reaction to the protests over Brown’s killing as a case study in the needless and dangerous militarization of the police.

Can Mr. Waldman really be this naive? After all, he works for the same damned publication as Radley Balko who has been covering this story on the Washington Post. Prominent libertarian magazine Reason has also been covering this story. The front page of the Libertarian subreddit (which I wouldn’t call overly libertarian but it’s libertarian enough for Mr. Waldman) is filled mostly with articles about this story. So what the Hell is Mr. Waldman prattling on about? Well, as you will soon see, he isn’t actually asking about the libertarians. He’s asking about Rand Paul:

But there has been a near-total silence from prominent libertarians on this issue. Senator Rand Paul, right now America’s most prominent libertarian (yes, I know, some don’t consider him a real libertarian), hasn’t said anything about the case — no public comments, no news releases, nothing on Twitter, nothing on Facebook.

Mr. Waldman is correct in that some don’t consider Rand Paul a real libertarian. For example, Rand Paul doesn’t consider Rand Paul to be a real libertarian. So it’s dishonest to say he is America’s most prominent libertarian when the man doesn’t consider himself a libertarian. This just goes to show that if you narrow the field enough you can make up whatever claim your heart desires.

If Mr. Waldman can’t find the libertarians discussion this story he needs to overcome his own laziness, pick up his phone, and call his coworker Mr. Balko up.

Everything I Want is a Human Right and Should be Free

Economic ignorance has lead to widespread belief in many silly things. For example, people believe that war is good for the economy because it creates manufacturing jobs. Frédéric Bastiat explained why this belief was bullshit in 1850 with the parable of the broken window. Another silly belief many people seem to have is that there is such a thing as free. This belief has become especially commonplace now that everybody equates anything they want as a human right and therefore should be provided for free.

The latest case of this belief being proliferated is tampons. I’m not kidding. This article, which argues that tampons should be free, has been making the rounds on the Internet and many people have deemed it to be a good idea:

We need to move beyond the stigma of “that time of the month” – women’s feminine hygiene products should be free for all, all the time.

Sanitary products are vital for the health, well-being and full participation of women and girls across the globe. The United Nations and Human Rights Watch, for example, have both linked menstrual hygiene to human rights. Earlier this year, Jyoti Sanghera, chief of the UN Human Rights Office on Economic and Social Issues, called the stigma around menstrual hygiene “a violation of several human rights, most importantly the right to human dignity”.

[…]

But this is less an issue of costliness than it is of principle: menstrual care is health care, and should be treated as such.

We’ve come full circle. Since so many people believe that healthcare is a human right and therefore must be provided to all for free anything that can be somehow tied to healthcare should likewise be provided to all for free. But nothing is free. Everything good requires resources. First raw resources must be collected, which in of itself requires energy. Then those raw resources must be refined into something useful for the manufacturing of capital goods, which also requires energy. After that those capital goods must be further refined into something consumers can us, which requires more energy. Energy itself is a resource as is time and basically everything else that touches the manufacturing process.

The bottom line is somebody has to invest the resources necessary to produce a good. When somebody says they believe something should be free what they really mean is that everybody in the world should be forced to set aside a portion of their resources to manufacture that “free” product. To further simplify the matter when somebody says they believe something should be free what they really mean is that everybody else should pay for it.

Now the people who want free shit usually use very utilitarian arguments. This article, for example, points out that approximately half of the population of this planet can utilize tampons. I’m going to one up that. What is an activity that every human being does that can negatively impact sanitation? Shit! Therefore I propose something different. Instead of “free” tampons I propose “free” toilet paper for all! Obviously I’m joking since I’m not economically illiterate and I’m not such an asshole that I want government violence brought against you so I can get something for “free”. But I believe my point has been made.

We Have to Do Something

I didn’t pay much attention to the anti-gun kick Rolling Stone magazine was on last month. For some reason I came across its article the supposedly explains how gun control advocates can win against the National Rifle Association (NRA). The article is mostly bullshit but one item stood out to me because of how blatant it was:

4. Act, Don’t Dither

When catastrophic events like Newtown unfold, there’s an impulse from many elected officials to slow down, to gather facts, to ensure that cooler heads prevail. Politically, this is why gun-control dies.

This point is so blatant yet so correct. It’s true that gun control dies when the facts come in, which is why gun control advocates need to exploit tragedies immediately if they hope to gain any success. But I would argue that any movement that dies because of facts isn’t a movement worth fighting for.

I think the biggest reason gun rights have been winning against gun control is because the latter relies on deceit and falsities. Gun control’s heyday was the era directly preceding the information age. Before widespread Internet connectivity it was much easier for gun control advocates to control the message and conceal the facts. Now that so many people have access to the Internet the facts are impossible to conceal and the facts speak pretty clearly in favor of gun rights. So the only hope gun control has a succeeding is making a move before the facts have actually been gathered.

Another Loophole Created by Gun Control Advocates

Anybody who has been involved in the gun rights movement for any length of time knows that advocates of gun control love to toss around the word loophole. Loophole, when used by advocates of gun control, simply means a legal method of an individual to possess a firearm. Shannon Watts, the head of Michael Bloomberg subsidiary Moms Demand Action (MDA), tweeted yesterday about needing to close the gun rental loophole because of its link with suicides:

Because I’m a helpful guy I decided to read the linked article to see how this horrifying problem is affecting every man, woman, and child in the United States. As it turns out the problem this loophole is supposedly responsible for isn’t much of a problem:

Following a death this January at the Los Angeles Gun Club, the Orange County Register scoured coroners’ data from just three counties and found 64 cases of gun-range suicide over a 12-year period.

64 cases in 12 years? That’s an average of approximately five suicides per year. So far this year six people have been killed by lightning strikes in Florida. The reason the problem of suicides at gun ranges is seldom discussed is because it’s exceedingly rare. More lives would be saved by finding a way to mitigate lightning strikes in Florida.

Humans in general perform poorly at assessing risk. Proof of this exists in this week’s Ebola scare even though the risk of contracting Ebola is very rare. Like the people currently losing their shit over the non-threat of Ebola virus, advocates of gun control have been losing their shit over any non-threat they can somehow associate with firearms. I advise advocates of gun control to stick to issues that actually harm people such as American imperialism and police brutality… oh yeah, they never mention those, which is funny considering they want those agents of the state to have a monopoly on gun ownership.

Mixed Messages

The United States, in many ways, can be viewed as Israel’s father. It gives Israel money, stands beside it even when it fucks up, and jumps to its defense. But being a father isn’t always easy, especially when you have a father like the United States. If there’s one thing the United States sucks as it’s keeping a consistent message. Recently Israel’s father decided to scold Israel:

The US has said the shelling of a UN shelter in Gaza is “totally unacceptable and totally indefensible”.

In its strongest criticism yet of Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory, the US – Israel’s closest ally – urged Israel to do more to protect civilian life.

This scolding has upset may of Israel’s friends. There are a lot of calls for Obama’s head being made over this. Yet I’m left believing that Israel is very confused at the moment. While it’s receiving a tongue lashing from its father one moment it’s being sold munitions the next:

The United States, meanwhile, agreed to Israel’s request to resupply it with several types of ammunition.

It’s not an emergency sale, a U.S. defense official told CNN.

Among the items being bought are 120mm mortar rounds and 40mm ammunition for grenade launchers, officials said. Those will come from a stockpile the United States keeps in Israel, which is worth more than $1 billion.

You can’t scold and reward a child at the same time. It creates confusion that makes it difficult for them to know whether or not what they did was right or wrong. The United States really needs to be a better father is either reward or punish Israel. Doing both is just silly and inconsistent.

It’s Not Technically a Lie

Friday the goons over at Moms Demand Something or Other Action (MDA) posted the following tweet:

Here’s a screenshot just in case the tweet falls down the memory hole (which seems to happen with alarming frequency on any Twitter account controlled by gun control advocates):

moms-demand-peer-nations

This caused Linoge and myself to wonder what a “peer nation” is:

wtf-is-a-peer-nation

We see with this tweet by the folks over at (MDA) a common tactic used by gun control advocates: massaging data. In almost any of the reports issued by any of the major gun control organizations there are terms such as “developed nations” and now “peer nations” scattered about within. These terms have no definite meanings, which makes them convenient stipulations on the data being used.

I could, for instance, claims that a “peer nation” is any nation that relies predominantly on coal to generate electrical power, possesses one or more aircraft carriers, has a population made up predominantly of people who hail from another part of the planet, consume beef as a primary form of meat, have no laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol but heavily restrict its sale and manufacturing, and has at least two cities with a population greater than one million. Doing so would lead to absolutely useless data but I could make claims without technically lying. This is what gun control advocates have been resorting to. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start with the results they want and continue to add stipulations onto what qualifies as a developed or peer nation until they get the data necessary to match their results.

I’m reminded of government provided statistics on inflation, unemployment, and other economic matters. They always look good. Even when things are bad the government provided statistics make them look at the very least OK. When you look into how the government calculates those statistics you see that it adds on a tremendous number of stipulations and when those stipulations aren’t enough they add a few more.

The thing is if you have to add so many stipulations to get the results you want then you’re working with meaningless data. Massaging data until you get a desired result doesn’t allow you to identify anything of value. You have to start with an honest data set, calculate the results, and work from there. But like the government, gun control advocates know if they worked with an honest data set they wouldn’t have a case.

Not Everything You Read Online is True

This is going to come as a shock to some people but not everything you read on the Internet is true. Now that I’ve shattered your world let me discuss something that should raise red flags whenever you read it: anything that looks like propaganda. Propaganda can be easily recognized as it will make one side of an issue look perfect and the other as evil as possible. The reason I’m bringing this up is because there is a lot of people in the shooting community have, shall we say, a negative view on Muslims. While I can’t see wisdom in shoehorning approximately 2.2 billion people into a single caricature but I digress. Not too long ago news was circulating that Isis had handed down a decree that all girls between the ages of 11 and 46 be subjected to genital mutilation. This spread like wildfire and I heard plenty of variations on “See! Muslims are a bunch of barbarians!” As it turns out this story, like many stories that put a group into a very negative light, is probably bullshit:

top UN official quoted from a statement saying that Isis wanted all females aged between 11 and 46 in the northern city to undergo the procedure.

Jacqueline Badcock said the decree was of grave concern.

But media analysts say the decree seen on social media may be a fake.

It has typos and language mistakes and is signed by “The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”, a name the group no longer uses, instead referring to itself as the Islamic State.

Some bloggers suggest that the alleged fatwa, which has been circulated on social media for about two days, may have been aimed at discrediting Isis.

Isis is a bad gang and can be easily discredited without fabricating stories. It is a bad enough gang that the story about female genital mutilation is believable. But just because something is believable doesn’t mean it’s true. And that brings us to today’s lesson. If it sounds like propaganda take it with a grain of salt. Try to verify the information through credible (or at least pseudo-credible) sources before you begin writing your epic hate-filled Internet rant on random message forums.

Federal Government Gave Local Gangs Military Equipment

Fellow denizens of Minnesota, and me neighbors in North Dakota, we are facing a major problem. The federal government has been caught providing military equipment to local gangs:

The department got the 3-ton Humvee about three years ago through a federal program that provides local police departments and state agencies with military weapons and equipment no longer needed or used in the global war on terror.

A total of 1,549 weapons or other equipment — with an estimated value of about $3 million — has been distributed in North Dakota over the past decade by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency. More than 8,500 items have gone to law enforcement agencies in Minnesota.

The equipment ranges from night vision goggles and gun silencers to mine-resistant ambush-protected armored vehicles, better known as MRAPs.

I’m not sure what the federal government’s thinking here. Arming violent gangs who are eight times more likely to kill you than terrorists is not an effective method to fight terror. It is however a good way of perpetuating terror. Having a bunch of thugs roll up to your house in a Humvee at two in the morning, kick in your door, shoot your dog, and kidnap you is certainly a terrorizing situation and one that happens far more frequently than attacks by foreign terrorists.

Also, as a side note, when the fuck will I legally be allowed to buy a suppressor in this forsaken state? If people with a history of performing violent acts can have them then why can’t nonviolent people like me have them?

Speed Limits

This month the men and women of Minnesota’s various police departments have been holding one hell of a fundraiser in the form of speed traps. They’ve been using the tagline “There’s not excuse for speeding.” And they’ve been covering billboards, newspaper pages, and other advertising space (with our tax dollars no less) with propaganda about the dangers of speeding (the ads are kind of like reefer madness but less entertaining).

Do you know what fucks up traffic flow? People who don’t drive with the flow of traffic, which is always above the posted speed limit because those posted speed limits are bullshit and the state knows it. This shouldn’t surprise anybody though. Who knows the maximum safe operating speed of a stretch of road better than the people who drive it twice a day, five days a week as they go to and from work? Posted speed limits are the product of arbitrary decisions made by people sitting in marble buildings who have no idea what the maximum safe speed on a random stretch of road they’ve never driven on is. Flow of traffic is the result of people who have a great deal of experience driving on a stretch of road doing so at the maximum speed they know to be safe.