So there’s been another college campus shooting.

Just like Va Tech, the gun control crowd will undoubtedly cling on to this tragedy as a reason to restrict the sale, purchase, and ownership of firearms. I think it serves as a better example of how people have lost the creativity to do murder-suicide in some sort of original fashion. I mean, really. Shooting up a classroom full of kids? That is SO ’90s.

People die by gun violence every day. It gets attention in settings such as this because the killers and students are, how shall I put it, uh, not poor, inner-city minorities. Well, that, and the fact that whites (and we’ll include Asians on this one) seem to be better at accumulating body counts in a single act.

Other than that, its basically the same story: Bad person uses gun to kill other people, regardless of dessert.

My apologies if you are close to this or one of the other tragedies I mentioned. They are indeed tragedies and the mourning is quite real for those closely affected. But forgive me for not getting weepy over what amounts to another excuse for projected grief to spice-up a nation’s dull life. We have a much more deserving cause for national distress.

I’m not saying everyone should get a gun — nor am I against reasonable gun laws. But don’t take mine away because some nut-job went postal on some smart kids. That shit just doesn’t follow.

Comments Off
Filed under: Behind Every Law..., Politics is Personal, Freedom Meets Darwin, Daily Rant

Really, the headline says it all:

D.C. Tax Office Servers Found in Alley

There could be a mundane explanation for how two computer servers from the embattled D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue ended up in a trash alcove behind the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia Heights. [ed. Really? There could?]

Building engineer Melvin Barnes found the three-foot tall, 50-pound servers sitting next to the dumpster on Wednesday morning.

The money quote:

“First of all, I’m upset because I gotta move ‘em,” said Barnes, recalling his first reaction. “I began to look at the stickers that were on the servers and I seen, ‘D.C. Government, Property of the Tax and Revenue’ and I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’”

The office is under investigation in a multi-million dollar embezzlement case in which 10 people have been arrested, including two tax office employees.

Uh oh indeed. As a DC taxpayer for the last 6 years, I’m glad that his first reaction to seeing 3 freaking servers with personally sensitive data on them was to say, “Aw, shiiit. More work for me!”  and then call the local news. Not the first reaction of most of the employees at the DC tax office, I suspect.

Hat tip, NTW.

Comments Off
Filed under: Freedom Meets Darwin, Profiles in Governance

NYT Headline: FDA: Children Treated With Botox Died:

The popular anti-wrinkle drug Botox and a competitor Myobloc have been linked to some deaths and other severe side effects suggestive of botulism, the government warned doctors Friday.

…

Botox and Myobloc use botulinum toxin, which blocks nerve impulses to muscles, causing them to relax. (emphasis mine)

And the Captain Obvious Award goes to….

1 Comment »
Filed under: Freedom Meets Darwin

Imagine that you, like Austin Powers, were cryogenically frozen in 1967, only to be thawed out today. Now, imagine how little you would even begin to comprehend a news item like the following:

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient’s upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

Which brings to mind…..markets in organ surrogates, anyone?

Comments Off
Filed under: The Dismal Science, Freedom Meets Darwin, Pop! Goes the Culture

In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down — a momentous change that brought joy and hope to millions under the oppressive (yet lessening) yoke of communism.

Early today, masked gunmen in Gaza blew up a wall (shouldn’t they be bombmen?) letting thousands into that freest of free lands — Egypt:

Thousands of Gazans began crossing into Egypt and returning with milk, cigarettes and plastic bottles of fuel.

HAMAS destroys more walls before noon than the IRA does all day:

Two-thirds of the Rafah wall had been demolished by 10 a.m. and the crowd of Palestinians crossing into Egypt swelled into the tens of thousands.

The destruction continued as Palestinians used a bulldozer to tear down a section of low concrete wall topped with barbed wire to allow easier access for cars.

Islamic fundamentalists take note– Behold the Power of Capitalism:

Mohammed Abu Ghazel, 29, said he had crossed the border three times. He bought cigarettes worth $53 in Egypt and sold them for five times that in Gaza, he said.

People will not stand to be kept behind walls. Whether the obstacle is the Great Wall of China or the Tin Wall of Mexico — people will find a way to freedom. (And they’ll have an armload of Lucky’s to boot!)

Via Matt Welch

Comments Off
Filed under: Consumerism Rulez, Freedom Meets Darwin

I’m all for Free Speech and don’t think the people who organized this — or those who sign it — should be put on a terrorism watch list, but let’s be real now:

To: All those currently exercising positions of responsibility in the Government of the United States of America, whether elected or appointed, and whether at the federal, state, or local level

Whereas the United States Government’s claim to legitimacy is purportedly based on such principles as the consent of the governed, human equality, and the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and

Whereas few if any of those over whom you claim authority have ever consented to such governance; and

Whereas governments, as claimants to such authority over others, are by their nature inconsistent with human equality; and

Whereas your laws, ordinances, decrees, and policies generally stand in violation, directly or indirectly, of the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;

We, the undersigned, hereby demand:

That you cease to claim to be acting in our name or as our agents; and

That you cease all attempts to exercise authority over your fellow human beings, on this continent or elsewhere; and

That you work to dismantle the institution or set of institutions known as the Government of the United States of America, in every branch and at every level, as speedily as possible; and

That you make no attempt to interfere with its replacement by voluntary associations of free and equal individuals.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Although, it does beg the question why anarchists would even bother to petition an entity they don’t think is legitimate. Such an action is akin to Iran sending Israel a cease and desist order of existence.

No word yet from the Government on whether it has decided to disestablish itself.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Politics is Personal, Freedom Meets Darwin, Profiles in Governance, The Homeland

Um. Because we gave them a jar of fucking mercury.

Via Fark.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Freedom Meets Darwin

Lots of tongue and finger wagging going on about the TNR/Ron Paul kerfluffle. Obviously some folks at FreedomandShit[dot]org are justifiably unhappy with the good doctor, and rightly so, but I have a bit of a different take on the whole episode, one that our very own Spartakiss hinted at in the comments on this post:

To some extent all of the candidates operate on irrational judgments and flawed logic. The difference is that Paul, as far as I can tell, doesn’t want to translate the despicable opinions detailed in his newsletter into law. That’s worth something.

It’s actually worth quite a bit. That’s an important point that’s lost, certainly on the staff of TNR, and, more unfortunately, on 99.9% of the American people. All politicians are fucking crazy, all politicians ignore the concerns of people it’s convenient to ignore, and all politicians say or do despicable things–Obama quit smoking, for Chrissake! They have to do those things in order to be successful politicians, and they have to be utterly unhinged to want to be politicians in the first place.

So, yeah, Ron Paul may be sort of a crank and he almost certainly has a lot of personal beliefs that are distasteful to the “urbane libertarians who staff the Cato Institute or the libertines at Reason magazine.” But he’s pretty up front about it and, most importantly, he alone is the only crank among all of the candidates in either party who isn’t trying to inflict his crazy on the rest of us. You can totally hate him and all of his personal beliefs about race, gender, fuel efficiency, incest, and the definition of “art,” “marriage,” “science,” or any other noun government tries to define. You can spend your life opposing all of his personal beliefs but still think he’d be a great president, because he has no interest in codifying those beliefs.

People who believe repugnant things should be free to organize their lives, businesses, and Auburn-based name-hijacking hate-tanks as they see fit, and so should you. One of those systems of organization will thrive and flourish in the marketplace of ideas, and it will be the longer lasting. The other will wither and die, and good riddance to it.

Yes, it’s dispiriting to see it so starkly in black and white: there’s a really ugly side to freedom, in that free people are free to be dicks, free to be wrong, and free to speak their ignorant minds. But the freedom that allows them to be so woefully backwards is the same freedom that allows the rest of us to point out what a bunch of backwards kooks they are and develop and disseminate better ideas. There isn’t a government policy that is going to help in that fight: it’s a war of ideas, and it’s a war that I–and Ron Paul–want waged in the private sphere.

5 Comments »
Filed under: Politics is Personal, Freedom Meets Darwin

Because only in a free society can we truly enjoy the trivial things in life.

Say hello to Penelope.

5 Comments »
Filed under: Freedom Meets Darwin, Uncategorized

Some people just don’t seem to appreciate the convenience of the market:

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Several older residents of this town are protesting plans to open a funeral home across the street from a senior center, saying it would be a little too close for comfort.

About 100 people have signed a petition calling on the City Council to deny James Asper and Mary Hansen, partners in Aspen Funeral Home LLC, a special use permit giving them the right to lease the building across the street from the Lake City Senior Center as a funeral home, senior center manager Vickie Harrison said. They plan to present the petition at a Feb. 5 hearing on the matter, she said.

”I don’t like it at all. It kind of gives you an uncomfortable feeling,” said 65-year-old Marg Dunkle, who signed the petition.

The proprietors feign humility over the brilliance of the move:

”We find it a little disconcerting that they would think that location is intentional,” Hansen said.

But the truth is hard to ignore:

Hansen said the building was chosen because it suited the business’ needs, not because of its proximity to the senior center.

The business’ needs, of course, would be well-met by an abundant supply of dead and dying people across the street.

This wins three ways:

1) The funeral home saves money on transportation of the body to its premises.

2) Center resident friends of the deceased don’t have to find a ride to the funeral and can more easily attend.

3) Reduced carbon footprint all-around when you factor in all the gas mileage (if you’re into that sort of thing).

At least one senior center resident recognizes the benefits:

Some, like 81-year-old Doy Seng, had a practical view of the proposed funeral home.

”We’re old here. We’re all ready to go,” she said. ”I think it will be handy.”

1 Comment »
Filed under: Consumerism Rulez, Freedom Meets Darwin