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QotD: De Becker on American Violence
Nov. 23rd, 2017 09:30 am-p7 in The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
QotD: the Merits of the Knife
Sep. 17th, 2017 10:33 amConsider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone
in order to stab him.
A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness.
We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners.
Plus, knives don't ricochet.
And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
- Molly Ivins
Cheetahs Near Extinction
Dec. 27th, 2016 08:32 amCheetah population crashes, raising threat of extinction
The world's cheetah population is crashing, leaving the world's fastest land animal approaching extinction, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. There are now about 7,100 cheetahs left in the wild, the report said, down from an estimated 100,000 at the end of the 19th century. Cheetahs once roamed Africa and Asia, but they have lost an estimated 91 percent of their habitat. Most of the remaining cheetahs are in Africa, with about 50 remaining in Iran. In Africa, 14 of 18 groups studied were decreasing. Zimbabwe's cheetah population has fallen from 1,200 to 170 in 16 years. [USA Today, CNN]
SOURCE
The Week at http://theweek.com/10things/662478/10-things-need-know-today-december-27-2016
My thought: I'm still reading Sapiens and the first section, about how humans absolutely devastated the megafauna of every continent and island, is still reverberating through my consciousness. The extinction of many species, including the wooly mammoth and the sabre tooth tiger, immediately followed the introduction of our species to a land mass. We are still causing extinctions. You would think that we'd make an effort to sustain at least token populations of the more charismatic species. Instead it appears that the great white hunter would rather have one on his wall than to keep them alive in the wilds. As the political reality in the US turns even uglier, I have less and less respect and care for my own species. We may extinct ourselves, but that would be good for many other species.
Source: Rick Ungar "from the left" at Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/01/16/here-are-the-23-executive-orders-on-gun-safety-signed-today-by-the-president/
President Obama has signed 23 executive orders designed to address the problem of gun violence in America. The following are the items addressed:
Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions:
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make itwidely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effectiveuse of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to developinnovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
It does not appear that any of the executive orders would have any impact on the guns people currently own-or would like to purchase- and that all proposals regarding limiting the availability of assault weapons or large ammunition magazines will be proposed for Congressional action. As such, any potential effort to create a constitutional crisis—or the leveling of charges that the White House has overstepped its executive authority—would hold no validity.
Movie notes: Monte Walsh
Nov. 15th, 2015 05:07 pmIt's an old western with Lee Marvin, really a wonderful movie about a cowboy who looses everything but maintains his center, his calm and his kindness. It seems to be about the end of the Wild West. There's a fantastic and long riding scene in which the cowboy named Monte "rides the grey down". Humorous too. I liked it. My mom complains that it was slow. She already deleted it from her direct tv.
Oak Ridge, TN
Nov. 5th, 2015 06:43 amThe scientists who work at the labs don't live in Oak Ridge anymore. I used to think of Oak Ridge as a pocket of international PhD's who were above the southern morass. Educated and openminded. That is no longer true. The road between the plants and West Knoxville has many more lanes, and at rush hour you can see where the lab personnel are going. My friends tell me that Oak Ridge is become more like the rest of east Tennessee, that is, less educated and more religious and patriotic.
Patriotic externally at least. On my mother's block most houses have a flag or some sort of "God Bless America" display going on. My mother has an American flag hanging on her front gate, and there's one in the window of her neighbor's house, and one on the porch of the neighbor across the street. My father, in another neighborhood, also has one up. I don't know what exactly all these flags mean. I think that if you do not display your patriotism, you are suspect of being a terrorist. I also suspect that the flags declare gun ownership, because the second amendment is enshrined here. Certainly one would be foolish to threaten anyone, because stickers on vehicles declare that their guns will only be removed from cold dead hands, or that the guns will be smoking hot and out of ammo. Hanging a flag is in a sense cammo for my relatives who are not so well armed.
Religiousness is endemic here. Christianity, to be specific. My mother says Baptists are the dominant sect but the Catholics and Methodists have churches near here and active communities. I walked by the Methodist church this morning, taking the dog out, and noticed that they have a "First Steps" program for "child development". Every church has some program for the little ones. It occurs to me to wonder, does anyone attempt to teach the little ones skepticism and critical thinking? Are the children getting properly socialized, or dogmatized? Probably some of each, I suspect.
Oak Ridge is overwhelmingly white. I did run across a Hispanic mother and her two children waiting for the bus. She kept them far away from my mother's dog. And I have seen a few blacks here and there. The talker who used to work at the gym who now hangs out by the door at Panera to keep social. He doesn't know when to say goodbye. Another nonwhite is my mother's old friend Dimitri who is Middle Eastern, and walks everywhere, picking up trash and coins from the sidewalks. He was an engineer at the plant, has plenty of money in the bank, but lives in a tiny apartment and does not own a car. I would like to talk to him. I haven't seen a single native since I've been here, that is, aside from white eyes who were born here like myself.
US sales of silencers went from 285,000 in 2011 to 360,000 in 2012. According to the ATF there's now a 9 month waiting period for registration approval, and applicants must provide the ATF with a photo and fingerprints, and pay a $200 tax.
The assault rifle buying binge provoked by the Newtown shooting has tapered down, and those same people are getting set up with silencers, flashlights, laser scopes, stocks, pistol grips and rail systems for attaching other accessories.
SOURCE
http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/22/news/companies/gun-silencer-sales/
GUNS: My view
Apr. 3rd, 2013 11:23 am- america,
- constitution,
- crime,
- government,
- guns,
- home,
- homeland security,
- law,
- military,
- obama,
- peace,
- police,
- police state,
- privacy,
- psych,
- sanity,
- security,
- violence
--G. K. Chesterton
Nothing in life is quite so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
--Winston Churchill
QotD: Getting Humans to Kill
Jul. 4th, 2011 09:19 am--Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door, p65
- authoritarianism,
- guns,
- life,
- military,
- murder,
- my species,
- psych,
- quotes,
- science,
- war
In case you missed it, Hasan is the psychiatrist who shot 43 people at a military medical center. According to several docs on Medscape, he's not looking all that crazy in court, but rather highly effective as a terrorist. Plenty of evidence of careful premeditation has been presented. Like this:
The entire sale was odd, the gun salesman recalled, because Hasan took out his cell phone and videotaped the manager's demonstration of how to load the new pistol, remove its magazine and break down the weapon. Brannon told the court he'd never seen anyone make such a videotape. Hasan said that "he wanted to review it later."
Medscape is free but you have to create a sign-in to access the articles.
Concealed or Not: Baum on Guns
Sep. 23rd, 2010 07:50 pmBaum reports on the concealed permitting class he took in Boulder, CO, and on his experience of the gun-toting culture. I don't think they knew he was a liberal infiltrator who has voted consistently for laws restricting the distribution and use of guns. He gives a pretty good survey of the politics and economics of guns. He also gives some info on who's shooting who, and it seems that armed citizens are shooting a few bad guys, but that shootings overall are on the decrease. I wonder how long that will last. Anyway, institutionally apparently the police are against citizens carrying, but individually Baum found that street cops like the idea of potential backup from citizens.
According to Baum small concealable personal handguns are the one bright spot in the gun market--that and the accessories that allow you to carry concealed. Use of guns by women hasn't increased like they'd hoped it would, and where it has increased slightly is in hunting rifles. Tiny handguns designed for women have not taken off. Apparently there was a huge rush on ammo after Obama was elected, but that fear-driven buying binge has tapered down.
The new frontier for gun advocates, since they've been so successful in gaining "shall-issue" laws in the US, is open carry. Apparently it's already legal to openly carry a firearm in most states, but the goal is to do it enough that people habituate to it, and it is no longer so uncomfortable. Baum tried it and felt like a dick, so he went back to concealing.
Supreme Court Clarifies Gun Law
Jun. 28th, 2010 08:00 amDennis Henigan of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence said the decision will be used by the gun lobby to challenge a myriad of state and local gun laws. "With few exceptions, these challenges will fail," he said.
By one estimate there are 200 million guns in the private ownership of about 90 million people (in the US). This is an average of 2.2 guns per owner. I wonder how many people have just one gun, and how many people have a hundred. According to government stats we have about 80 gun deaths a day, 34 of which are homicides.
( sources, exact wording of the 2nd amendment, and opinion )
This is a bit of general advice I gleaned from living through the utter anarchy that followed the earthquake, in no particular order. I write this in the hopes that it helps someone someday.
( ADVICE, not mine, but I agree, not that I act )
