Welcome back

Kim and Connie.

Just... LOL

The not-so-subtle message here is that vegetarianism is revolution is sex; you too can fight the power and score hot naked rebel chicks by, er, eating tofu. Yeah. Forget all that whining about the objectification of women, one just like Lydia will serve herself up on a platter if you just strike the right clenched-fist poses and munch your beansprouts; we promise. (Well, it sort of has to read that way, doesn’t it? Otherwise what would be the point of the ad campaign?)

I suppose if you’re female, the implied promise might be that you get to be the hot naked rebel chick. Which, if you’re one of the anorexic daddy-issues gothgirls or overweight lumpy-sweater lesbians who tend to flock to PETA events, must actually seem like a pretty good trade."

Thanks to Eric S. Raymond (of Armed & Dangerous) for his article: From radical evil to farce in two generations.

WTF moment

My new roomie (a close friend of several year's acquaintence) is a very intelligent, fairly thoughtful guy. However, during a discussion of politics the other evening, over a couple of beers, I was flabbergasted at his ignorance of some issues. To give him credit, he's exploring things with a fairly open mind in our discussions, not very opinionated about it, but questioning my stance (mostly in an exploratory way) on a lot of things from politics to firearms (and the inveitable cross-pollination between the two.)

Him: "I never vote- because I've been disenfranchised. The electoral college has made my vote meaningless, it' not democracy."

Me: "Of course it's not a democracy, we live in a Republic."

{discussion ensues about the difference and the historical context, and a bit of games theory about elections and election methdology}

Him: "How come I never once heard that republic not democracy thing in school?"

Me: "Arg."

Uranium

It's practically coming out of our ears, but despite how important global warming is, nuclear power is just too dangerous. Better to just go back to the stone age and stop being a pestilence upon the Earth, unnatural creaures that we are.

blech.

The tax that wasn't a tax and other fairy tales.

Obama tries to redefine taxes in an interview with George Stephanopolous.

And on YouTube.

A market cost is a tax, but something you're compelled to pay (by government and the law, eventually resulting in a gun at your head if you refuse) is not a tax.

riiiiiight.

"The precautionary principle...

... is based on the belief that there is no down side to taking action. "

This is precisely the phrase I've been looking for in many conversations I have had in the past. It captures exactly what I want to say, from my initial sense of "somethign is wrong about that idea but I can't put my finger on it" all the way through the evolution into my current full-blown opposition to nearly everything espoused by someone who would embrace the so-called "precautionary principle."

I got there via The Anarchangel's article: Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Politically Motivated Scam

Both are worth reading.

Not just for Black kids

http://fredoneverything.net/ColorOfEducation.html

 

This ties right in with other reading I've been doing on education. The system is the problem; burn it down.

 

H/T http://www.jerrypournelle.com/

 

 

Yep

Cobb's got something to say. Fits right in with what I've been reading from John Taylor Gatto and my own observations.

This is pretty cool

New shooter update

I actually had some similar problems the other day at the range with my mom, her room mate, and said room mate's daughter (who has been staying with me for a few months, so was also my room mate.)

Mom's roomie is a lefty with right eye dominance. Now, I'm no expert fire arms instructor, and not a lefty to boot, but I am also cross-eye dominant. So I could sympathize. I explained what the problem is and promised to follow up with some research on correct shooting technique as a cross-eyed lefty 'tard (j/k). I found this, but would like to hear from other people with advice on this issue.

We also had an equipment malf- which sucked. I bought a .22LR revolver last year, but due to being out of the country, had not had a chance to fire it until now. I got it specifically for training initial safety and shooting technique, but the damned thing is having light strikes (both single- and double-action modes) and only firing every other round or 3 (or 4). It's an older H&R 9-shot .22LR revolver, I believe a model 829. So we had to use my carry sidearm, Glock model 22 (.40), which frame was a bit too large for comfort for my trainees.

On the plus side, a good time was had by all, we re-inforced the previous verbal lessons with some physical ones, and everybody got at least a few on the paper. The range officer was kind enough and respectful which never hurts with noobs. His assessment of me as "knowing my shit" helped calm my trainees as well. It's always something when you have to tell your mom what to do and expect very precise and immediate compliance.

We moved on to a few rounds through the long guns before the day was over, I even suckered... er- convinced the ladies to try the Mossberg 12 gauge. Which, having a light-weight collapsible M4 style 4-position stock on it, does kick a little bit, even with birdshot loads. I'll admit I don't want to shoot that thing all day either. It's primarily a home defense weapon, and familiarity training was the point of the day, not masochism. The .22 Savage was a pretty big hit though.

Resources

http://www.forcescience.org/articles.html

 

Via Alphecca: http://www.alphecca.com/

--
The difference between theory and practice, is much greater in practice than in theory...

Sentenced to death by doctors

Here's an article on end of life treatment in the UK, and how it is s self-fulfilling prophecy.

Under the guidelines the decision to diagnose that a patient is close to death is made by the entire medical team treating them, including a senior doctor.

{...}

He added that some patients were being “wrongly” put on the pathway, which created a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that they would die.

He said: “I have been practising palliative medicine for more than 20 years and I am getting more concerned about this “death pathway” that is coming in.

It is supposed to let people die with dignity but it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Death panels, indeed.

Brainstorming

I work now for a large school district, and we had our quarterly all-hands meeting for the IT department today.

The brainstorming exercise was to think about how to assist the frontline instruction at three important goalposts:

 

--3rd grade: read to learn

--7th grade: write for High School

--10th grade: on track for graduation

 

I was assigned to a team discussing the 3rd grade goal. I didn't get much positive reaction for my idea:

 

Have a fire sale on all the district's property to offload it to private school providers, and give everyone their property taxes back so they can pay for enrolling their kids at the new plethora of private schools.