Month: August 2019

Makes Sense

The Gun Thing

As the Socialists (you know, politicians, mainstream media, teachers’ unions etc.) are going all “NO MOAR GUNS!”, the people who were actually affected  by the recent gun violence seem to be taking a different approach:

More El Paso residents than ever before crowded into a class over the weekend to become certified to carry a concealed gun in public in Texas after this month’s mass shooting at a Walmart store that killed 22 people.
…
The vast majority of people at the classes were Hispanic; El Paso is a predominantly Latino city. Police say the accused gunman deliberately attacked Hispanics in the Walmart.
…
“We actually had two people buy guns here who were actually in the Walmart on the day of the shooting. The other people are just saying, ‘Hey, you know I want to be able to protect myself in the event of something going on’.”

And, of course, most of the guns being bought were handguns — the eeeevil killing machines that were once the named target of an organization known as Handgun Control, Inc. (and now known by a pseudonym, although it’s the same bunch of assholes).

Whatever.  Despite the moanings of the aforementioned gun confiscators, it seems as though a lot of people are not going to be helpless victims anymore — which is exactly as it should be.  (I just wish that little turd had walked into a Wal-Mart where a dozen or so of his would-be victims were already  carrying guns — I suspect that the outcome would have been a whole lot different, in a good way.)

And now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to do a little practice myself.  In the spirit of our buddies in El Paso, I’ll be doing handguns today:  an hour or two of dry-fire drawing practice at home, followed by a couple hundred rounds sent into a target at the DFW Gun Range.

Chinks In The Armor

Lies and Untruths, Marxists, Numbers & Statistics

As much as the ChiComs claim to be a global economic powerhouse, we should always be aware that much of the economic numbers that come out of China are either flat-out lies or at best, exaggerations.  Hence:

The most important thing to understand about Chinese statistics is not that they are necessarily manipulated from the top. Certainly that happens too, as it does in every country in the world. Look no further than Wang’s example for that. But much of the manipulation of Chinese data actually comes from the lower levels. China is a country of over a billion people, but it has no unified or centralized statistical reporting system. Data is gathered at the local level and passed up the chain until it reaches the central government. The bureaucrats in charge of that system enjoy professional success and advancement when their numbers conform to the expectations and directives of the party. As a result, the numbers can be inflated to give the impression of success or moderated in order to avoid attention.

An example of how this can lead to catastrophe comes out of China itself, in the not-so-distant past:

In the 1958-1961 Great Leap Forward, Chairman Mao’s disastrous attempt to shift a backward agrarian economy to a modern industrial powerhouse, the failure of the statistical system contributed to catastrophe on a grand scale. Mao’s plan, such as it was, required producing an agricultural surplus that could be sold to fund investment in a modern industrial base. Whipped into a patriotic frenzy, and knowing that their future depended on meeting unrealistic targets for the production of grain, local officials engaged in rampant exaggeration of output.
But reality was distorted at a cost. The higher the production figures, the greater the tax owed to the central government. In some areas, the exaggerated claims were so great that the entire harvest had to be handed over as tax, used to fund investments and extravagances that China could ill afford. In some parts of the country, the only crops left behind were grown by villagers in secret locations, away from the acquisitive eye of the local production teams. But such success stories were few and far between. Tens of millions died in history’s greatest man-made famine.

Communists are renowned, of course, for perverting the facts to suit their own ends.  Remember this over the coming political election season here in the U.S., as our own home-grown Marxists fabricate lies and misquote or otherwise falsify data, simply to advance their political agenda.

Shapely

Drive Time

Longtime Readers are no doubt getting tired of me griping about the sameness of modern automobiles.  Yet the other day I found myself looking at a pic of the new Corvette C8 — which, I have to admit, I don’t hate too  much  — and asking myself:  “Where have I seen this before?”

 

Then it came to me:

 

That’s the Ferrari 458, and although the rear is different, the front isn’t, much.

I’m not into “supercars”, really, but I have to think that if someone asked me to pick one (ignoring the investment differential vis-a-vis the Ferrari), I’d probably refuse both.  Which begs the question:  “Okay, Kim… so which modern supercar of today would you pick?”

Only because I find it the least ugly of all of them, the Aston Martin DB11:

 

…although, as I stated earlier on these pages, I’d rather not have any  supercar, but a simple sports car, the 2015 Jaguar XK:

 

I saw one as it burbled past me the other day in Plano’s Legacy West area, and I was filled with an unreasonable hatred towards its owner.  And I’m not even an envious socialist.

Go Boris!

Crime, Good Stuff, Gummint

When I saw this sentence from BritPM Boris Johnson, my heart sank:

You can’t just arrest your way out of a problem.

Then he redeemed himself:

It certainly helps, but it is only part of the answer. You need to tackle all the causes and incentives that are encouraging the criminal mentality, and that means first of all exploding any sense that the law is weak, or that criminals can get away with it. When the police catch a violent criminal, it is vital they get the sentence they deserve.
At present, there are too many serious violent or sexual offenders who are coming out of prison long before they should.
In the past five years, we have seen literally hundreds of convicted rapists who have come out of prison commit another sexual offence. There are thousands of ‘super prolifics’ – criminals with more than 50 convictions to their name – who are being spared jail altogether.
This cannot go on. I am afraid that as a society we have no choice but to insist on tougher sentencing laws for serious sexual and violent offenders, and for those who carry knives.
Our first duty is to protect the public in the most basic way – and that means taking such people off the streets.

[pause to let the applause and cheering die down]

Of course, policies like “stop and search” are going to cause palpitations amongst the liberals and criminal-symps [lots of overlap], but the plain fact is that when the police can do their job — i.e. try to prevent crime before it happens — and the justice system is allowed to work — i.e. impose jail sentences that keep criminals off the streets — society as a whole improves.

Just ask the denizens of NYFC when Mayor Giuliani and Police Chief Bratton did just that, back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  And if it made it worked there, it can make it work anywhere.

And to let the BritPM have the last word:

Yes, in the short term it will mean more pressure on our jails, and that is why today I am also announcing that we are creating another 10,000 spaces in our prisons. The Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has agreed to invest up to £2.5 billion to deliver this commitment.

Get going, Boris.

Not In Keeping

Travels

In last Sunday’s post about places I’ve seen, there was one pic which, for various reasons, didn’t make the cut:

As a long-ago Reader once commented:  “The best view of Manhattan is through a bomb-sight.”

Like so many cities, the place is best viewed from a distance because a) it smells and b) Noo Yawkers.  And of course there’s the political thing.

Despite all that, however, I like NYFC even though (to quote another Reader) it’s “mostly hype and hicks”.  And I’m not talking about the members of the International Hayseed Set who can be found gawping at Times Square and forming long lines at the Statue;  having lived there for three years, I’ve found most New Yorkers to be unbelievably parochial and yes, hicks.  What else can explain a city which serves the most over-priced-yet-average food in North America, and thinks that if it doesn’t happen in NYC, it doesn’t matter?

New Wife has never been to NYFC, so at some point I may have to grit my teeth and take her there.  Or not.  The price (to me) may just be too high.

Like That

Crime, Lies and Untruths, Politics

From Reader Paul W. comes this gem:

I see that the failure of the suicide watch is being blamed on (duh) a staff shortage in the federal prison system, and we’re supposed to believe that a guy with a 6″-thick black book containing several tons of dirt on famous people (like the Clintons) simply offed himself?